Barbie Star Ryan Gosling Reveals His Daughters Gave Him Tips For "I'm Just Ken" Oscars Performance

The 96th annual Academy Awards took place over the weekend, and the ceremony featured a lot of highlights. In fact, it got the highest rating of an Oscars ceremony in four years. One of the most talked-about moments in the show was Ryan Gosling's performance of "I'm Just Ken" from Barbie. The song was nominated for Best Original Song but lost to Barbie's "What Was I Made For" by Billie Eilish and FINNEAS. Gosling recently revealed that his two daughters with actor Eva Mendes watched his dress rehearsal of the performance, and they gave him some tips. 

"It was great," Gosling told People when asked about his performance. "It was so fun because they came to the dress rehearsal the day before and so they were in the front row." 

"They gave me some tips and some notes, all great notes," he added. "They are such a huge part of this for me... it was my girls' interest in Barbie and disinterest in Ken that got me into this in the first place. It was beautiful to have them there at the end."

Gosling's performance began with him serenading Barbie star Margot Robbie. He then took the stage with a horde of male dancers. The performance included a 40-piece orchestra, more than 60 Kens, and a couple dozen giant Barbie heads. The star was joined onstage by his fellow Kens from Barbie, including  Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Scott Evans. The performance also included a surprise appearance by Slash, the iconic guitarist from Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver. 

Molly McNearney, who produced this year's Academy Awards with Raj Kapoor, Katy Mullan, and Rob Paine, recently spoke about how much of the performance was Gosling's idea.

"Ryan Gosling is a true professional, that man — we met with him on Zooms months ago, talking about that performance," McNearney said. "Gret Gerwig weight in creatively as well. He was so committed to it. His choreographer, Mandy Moore, is exceptional — she was on all the calls. So was Mark Ronson."

"That's where the pink suit, and everybody else in black came from — and the stairs in the back. And we did an homage to the candelabra girls: We had Ken-delabra men."

Moore also took part in the interview and talked about the big ideas Gosling brought to the table.

"He was pretty clear about the overall structure of it," Moore added. He wanted to start in the audience, come up and see Mark, see Andrew [Wyatt, co-producer], ignite the Ken-delabras and then join the 10 dejected Kens on the stairs. From there, he wanted the rest of the number to evolve as if kens were coming from everywhere, 'Calling All Kens.' Eventually ending in a huge celebration revealing Slash."

What was your favorite part about the Academy Awards this year? Tell us in the comments!