Barbie: “I’m Just Ken” Success Has Been “Surreal” For Ryan Gosling

Barbie is currently the highest-grossing film of 2023, and its soundtrack has also been a major hit with fans. The movie features songs from many talented artists including Billie Eilish, Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Dua Lipa, FIFTY FIFTY, Gayle, HAIM, Ice Spice, Kali, KAROL G, Khalid, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Tame Impala, and The Kid LAROI. Mark Ronson served as the soundtrack’s producer alongside Kevin Weaver and Brandon Davis. This week, the producers were joined by music supervisor George Drakoulias for a special conversation at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. During the event, Ronson spoke about one of the biggest hits of the album, “I’m Just Ken,” which was performed by Ryan Gosling.

“[Greta Gerwig] sent me this funny PDF that her and Noah [Baumbach] had scribbled, like Barbie’s song should be about the world is perfect and everything’s great and there are no shadows and everything’s great because everything’s always great and that will be great. Like just all these silly lyrics,” Ronson explained (via THR). “The Ken song was like, ‘I love horses but they also make me mad.’ And it said Barbie and Ken hit songs, which is always like a funny thing to send to a songwriter, ‘Just give us two hit songs.’”

“Next thing I know, she’s like, ‘Ryan wants to sing the song.’ And I was like, ‘Really?’” Ronson recalled after sending the initial demo to Gerwig. “She goes, ‘Yeah, he said it speaks very deeply to him.’ And I was like, ‘Is he being ironic?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t think so.’”

“He kind of feels like someone who doesn’t get caught up in the hype from the little bit that now I know about him,” Ronson shared, explaining that he would send Gosling updates on the milestones reached by “I’m Just Ken.” “Even he’d be like, ‘This is so surreal, I don’t even know what to tell you.’ I think he’s a real musician, he loves music, and I think he was really touched by that and like when Slash played on it, you know? So there’s certain things that he’s been really, I think, excited about.”

Matchbox Twenty Frontman Reacts To Barbie:

In Barbie, Ken is obsessed with the Matchbox Twenty song “Push.” In a recent interview with USA Today, Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas revealed that he was originally skeptical about allowing the movie to use his song, but his love for director Greta Gerwig helped convince him.

“I want to preface this by saying that I thought it was hilarious. But in Bring It On, [Kirsten Dunst’s character] has this douchey boyfriend. And there’s a scene where he was in his dorm room with a Matchbox Twenty poster in the background. There was a whole period during the ’90s where the more successful we got, the bigger target we were. We were an easy takedown,” Thomas explained.

“When I got the call for Barbie, they told me, ‘Ken’s by the fireside, he’s playing the song and it’s his favorite band.’ So I did this thinking I’d be the butt of the joke, and I was fine with that. I’m pretty thick-skinned. But Julie Greenwald [from Atlantic Records] came to the Hollywood Bowl a month or two ago. She had just seen the movie and was like, ‘You come out of it loving Ken and loving ‘Push.” And I was like, ‘Aww. Alright, really good!’ Also, Greta Gerwig has been one of my crushes forever, to the point where I was on a plane one time and I called my wife, like,’”Baby, Greta Gerwig just came on the plane, oh my god.’ So just the fact that it didn’t diminish my crush of Greta, that’s even better.”

Barbie is now available on VOD.