Ryan Gosling Quotes
Actor & Musician
As a kid I decided that a Canadian accent doesn't sound tough. I thought guys should sound like Marlon Brando. So now I have a phony accent that I can't shake, so it's not phony anymore.
I try to play characters who are different from myself, so I feel like this character is someone who is really different. I actually think that if I did what he did in this movie, I would get a restraining order put against me.
I sometimes forget to have breakfast in the morning, but when I actually buy a box of cereal, I will probably eat it not only for breakfast but also as a snack later on.
I've been thinking about a bank robbery my whole life.
I don't believe in ghosts.
I make a mean tuna fish sandwich.
I love being Canadian. I think growing up in Canada gives you a world perspective that I certainly enjoy.
Women are better than men.
I don't like the process of meeting someone and you make a film and that's it. You think you're just getting started, and then it's over.
The theme for me is love and the lack of it. We all want that and we don't know how to get it, and everything we do is some kind of attempt to capture it for ourselves.
I don't even think of myself as particularly good looking, and not at all a typical kind of Hollywood leading man sort of actor.
Show me a man who wouldn't give it all up for Emma Stone, and I'll show you a liar.
I danced a little as a kid here in Canada: in Ottawa at the Elite Dance Studio and at the Top Hat Dance School in Cornwall where I grew up. So I had some experience of having to learn routines.
My uncle was an Elvis impersonator - his name was Perry, and he went by 'Elvis Perry' - and my work as a wedding singer landed me a spot in his act.
I did put on weight for the last half of the film, but the Ferris wheel scene was shot with a harness on me so that if I fell I wouldn't fall all the way.
It's not easy to leave your hometown and your family and your support system and come out to Los Angeles to - to pursue a dream where the odds are not in your favor.
All my characters are me. I'm not a good enough actor to become a character. I hear about actors who become the role and I think 'I wonder what that feels like.' Because for me, they're all me.
I think about death a lot, like I think we all do. I don't think of suicide as an option, but as fun. It's an interesting idea that you can control how you go. It's this thing that's looming, and you can control it.
When I was a kid, I was kind of obsessed with that movie 'Dick Tracy.' Burger King had all this 'Dick Tracy' stuff, and I collected all of it, and I had the posters, and I watched it on a loop.
I've learned it's important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is.
Sometimes I think that the one thing I love most about being an adult is the right to buy candy whenever and wherever I want.
I think we just knew that we had a movie when Rachel walked in the room.
I just sort of take it from a character perspective, and I don't know if he was necessarily spiritual, but I do think he had hope. He was a character that was comfortable having hope in his life, and hope is faith.
I'm attracted to films that have strong female characters because there are strong female characters in my life. That's my own reality, so it's a doorway into a world for me.
I don't know specifically what scenes I'd like to see violence in - I crave violence when I'm watching a John Hughes movie.
My sister and I used to sing at weddings. We would sing 'When a Man Loves a Woman' to the bride. We'd do it right before the garter ceremony.
I have a friend that is a WWII buff, and we sat and talked a lot about stuff like the war and the reasons behind it, and you now it's all in the uniform. Once you're in it, it usually does all the work for you.
I'm waiting to get old - I think old guys with tattoos look good.
This is going to sound ridiculous, but I remember watching 'Boyz n the Hood,' and there is a scene where Cuba Gooding, Jr. gets pressed against a car by a police officer, and he starts crying because it's so humiliating. I remember thinking in that moment that I could totally identify with him, and I'm a little white kid from Canada.
I grew up in a town called Cornwall, Ontario, which is about an hour outside of Montreal.
I don't think you can discriminate against budgets, you know? I'm an actor, I guess, so I'm just trying to play as many characters as I can. If there's a character I think I can play, and they're going to let me do it, I'll do it whether it's $10 or $1 million or more.
I just sort of feel like John Hughes movies are perfect, but they're missing violence. If they just had some violence, they'd be perfect.
It's not like I set out to be 'the indie guy.'
I loved growing up in Canada. It's a great place to grow up because - well, at least where I grew up - it's very multicultural. There's also good health care and a good education system.
I was very impressed by Walt Disney and the idea that you could have a dream and you could realize it to the point where people could walk around within it... It still resonates with me. I wanted to be somebody who believed in their ideas that much.
For now, I'm just going to keep doing the work and hope I don't get fired. If people want to put me up on their walls, I'll love it.
I'm glad I have an outlet. I don't think I would put my aggression elsewhere, but working on the projects I have worked on, you tend to benefit personally from trying to wrap your head around the way other people look at the world.
Maybe in my life I sort of put myself in situations that were chaotic, outside of my life.
If Russell Crowe says that he's Noah, he's Noah. You never doubt it. If he says that he's the Gladiator, he's the Gladiator. He's every character that he says he is. I've never doubted anything that he's done.
I don't really have that much angst to get rid of.
I grew up Mormon. I wasn't really Mormon, my parents were.
The '70s just seemed dirty, honestly, and not in an interesting way. It's not the '80s. In fact, it's 10 less. I grew up in the '80s, so that's more of an interesting time to me.
I feel like everything has happened naturally.
Falling in love is a narcissistic endeavor. You play the role of lover, and you find someone to act it out on.
I think I was always bound to become two selves, if I wasn't already.
I don't like to be entertaining. I don't like the feeling of being entertaining. If there was a musical or a comedy that was not just for entertainment but was rooted in something I could relate to on a real level, then I think I would do it.
They say never meet your heroes. But the addendum to that is 'unless they're Harrison Ford.'
I grew up in a family of strong women and I owe any capacity I have to understand women to my mother and big sister. They taught me to respect women in a way where I've always felt a strong emotional connection to women, which has also helped me in the way I approach my work as an actor.
Freedom is such a gift.
I did this scene in 'Lars and the Real Girl' where I was in a room full of old ladies who were knitting, and it was an all-day scene, so they showed me how. It was one of the most relaxing days of my life.
Hollywood usually doesn't have strong woman in films like that, and it's stupid, so for the most part they're usually being directed and written by men.
I'm going to make a movie about 'Hey Girl.'
You learn from all directors, all these guys.
When I made 'The Notebook,' the director, Nick Cassavetes, who is John's son, used to show me his father's movies.
I like working with actresses, and I like women a lot, not for obvious reasons, but just in that that there's so much about what they bring to the scene that keeps it so interesting. Their instincts are so different, and they never explain them to you.
I feel it's important to show that one thing that you do doesn't define you as a human being. It doesn't mean there aren't ramifications or you shouldn't pay for that but its not who you are.
Cars can have a hypnotic effect. You can get in a car and get out and not really remember the trip.
If I eat a huge meal and I can get the girl to rub my belly, I think that's about as romantic as I can think of.
I felt like I was going crazy as a kid. I wanted to be man, get a job.
You know us crazy kids. We'll do anything crazy to our hair.
I think it's more interesting to see people who don't feel appropriately. I relate to that, because sometimes I don't feel anything at all for things I'm supposed to, and other times I feel too much. It's not always like it is in the movies.
I just have my own taste, and I just try and stick with that. I'm just trying to play as many characters as I can for as long as I have an opportunity to.
For me, I sort of felt like it was kind of a fairytale... but an interesting one. I don't know of anybody who has had a romance quite like this, but I certainly know people who have stuck it out.
If you do one good thing, that doesn't define you either. Being around the kids in the juvenile center, they were engaging, they made us laugh but they were there for doing something terrible.
I always wanted to entertain. When I was six, a scrawny, scrawny kid, I'd get in my red speedo and do muscle moves. I actually thought I was muscular. I didn't know everyone was laughing at me.
Acting isn't that hard, really. I mean, I think that people make a big deal about it, but you just kind of try to say your lines naturally.
I try not to discriminate against genres.
If the character is true, the movie will fall into place. Or at least that's what you hope.
I think that you can sort of have your own personal journey and you know, you can just kind of apply that to whatever characters you're playing.
I think we're very complicated and we're capable of all kinds of things, and movies don't reflect that.
I know there are only so many characters I'll be able to play.
I've lost perspective on what I'm doing. I think it's good for me to take a break and reassess why I'm doing it and how I'm doing it. And I think this is probably a good way to learn about that. I need a break from myself as much as I imagine the audience does.
There's good things about going to church.
I always wanted to do a comedy, but I wanted to pick the right one. But it came down to working with Steve Carell. I've wanted to work with him since I met him years ago as a kid.
Working with someone is the best way to get to know someone, especially if it's a creative endeavor.
There's a lot of pressure to be the lead of a film. I have done it. It's not my favorite way to work.
If people want to put me up on their walls, I'll love it.
I've been doing this since I was 12... I don't want to act much longer; I can't do one thing my whole life.
There used to be a candy called 'Bonkers,' which I believe to be the greatest candy of all time.
If I have any particular appeal to women, maybe it's because I listen more than other guys do and appreciate how they think and feel about things.
When you meet your kids, you realize that they deserve great parents. And then you have your marching orders, and you have to try and become the person that they deserve.
I know that I'm with the person I'm supposed to be with.
I did what I had to do to get where I wanted to go. I had unearned confidence.
My home life now is mostly women. They are better than us. They make me better.
I've wanted to make films since a really young age. It's always been my passion.
What's nice with comedy is that you know it's working if it's funny.
In New York, you're forced to deal with life; it's there in front of you on a daily basis.
When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very, very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory - a hunt.
Some of the styles of dance in 'La La Land' I wish I had spent time on when I was a kid.
It's not good just to have life experience of film-making and that's all. It's hard to play a real person when you've been in jets and town cars for three years.
I'm from Canada, and I think, like everyone growing up anywhere else in the world, you are very aware of America - it sort of looms large in its legend, and so did Detroit.
People don't step outside themselves and make the film they want to make, because they're afraid of the reaction. But once you get that reaction and have lived through it, there's nothing they can do to get you down.
I don't know enough about manliness to define it.
I've always liked women more. I was brought up by my mother and older sister. I found my way into dance class.
I had a lot of romanticised ideas of what Detroit was like, but I didn't get there until I was 30, and it was very different than I had imagined it.
I had my hustle. It was whatever I could do to not end up working in a factory. If I had to shake it like a showgirl, I was going to do it.
I don't believe my house was haunted. I think I had an overactive imagination, and I was so convinced that those around me became convinced, too.
It was a strange experience, making a love story and not getting along with your co-star in any way.
A car is only trouble at a certain point.
I didn't want to make a literal film about Detroit, because it felt like what they were experiencing was more universal than that.