Ryan Gosling has become somewhat of a meme lately. Not only is there a Tumblr ironically posing him as a smoldering feminist, but there is also a lot of just plain romanticism of him.
I can see many reasons why people are fixated on Ryan Gosling:
-He is handsome and sexy. Not going to argue there.
-He seems intelligent. He’s far more intriguing than Ryan Reynolds. (Sorry, can’t think of that guy without thinking of dog sperm pastries in Van Wilder.)
-Guys like him because he has a cool, beard-growing, beer-throwing persona in The Notebook.
-He has a high-culture and low-culture appeal due to being in The Notebook but also movies like Drive, which I haven’t seen but have noted is respected by people of “legitimate opinions.”
That’s a lot for one actor to carry. The Ryan Gosling brand is strong.
But ever since I read Esquire’s cover story on him, I’ve found him creepy. In case you’re not familiar, here’s what went down:
First, he requested that he direct the photo shoot himself. Esquire let him do it, which I’m guessing means he was fairly pushy about this. If I was Esquire writer guy and some actor wanted to control the photos, I would probably think, “Ugh, this guy thinks he’s got a lot more talent than he actually does. Now I have to choose between hurting his fragile ego and letting this shoot turn into a huge disaster that pisses off our overworked art directors even more.”
For the photo shoot, Ryan Gosling had women painted to look like skeletons. Kinda weird, but could have been worse. He also suggested the cover be a picture of himself leaning on his own shoulder. Oddly cute, oddly innocent.
But beyond that, I thought the story was very … strange. Usually in Esquire cover features, the writer goes to the person’s house and they make fancy omelets and drink and smoke cigarettes, or something along those lines. For this, Ryan Gosling suggested they go to an amusement park and go on rides. He then approached them with joyful glee and screamed enough to somewhat alarm the writer.
Beyond the fact that I’m wary of anyone who can get through an interview without even one drink, something about it seemed either insane or fake – or maybe so fake that it rung of insanity. I got the impression that Gosling is hiding something, possibly wearing a mask of being childlike and innocent, with a small side of cluelessness. Either that or it’s his real personality.
All I know is that I can’t look at Ryan Gosling with the same attraction to his intelligence and artsiness via Lars and the Real Girl the same way anymore. I just get a sense that he’s not exactly “in the driver’s seat” of his own head.
I might not be alone in this. His recent “meme-ification” has me wondering if part of what leads us to fixate on someone with funny GIFs and Tumblrs is the suspicion that they’re not quite all there. We see them as non-people, larger-than-life archetypes (Ron Swanson) or human bodies possessed by something beyond their control (Charlie Sheen). This is what makes it so funny to make macros where they are saying ridiculous things. A meme is something we’re attracted to for material reasons but we regard as somewhat empty, perfect for us to put our hands into and play puppet master. Good thing Ryan Gosling probably loves puppets.
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