Ryan Gosling’s Troubled Childhood Is Nothing Like His Good Guy Image Today
From The Notebook’s Noah to Barbie’s Ken, Ryan Gosling has scored plenty of heartthrob roles across his career, cultivating an all-round “good guy” image. But his childhood paints a very different picture. The Hollywood favorite endured some challenging times back then, ones which could’ve easily derailed his path to stardom. And Gosling hasn’t been afraid to shed light on his past as the years have gone on.
An incredible rise
Few stars have enjoyed a rise up the Hollywood ranks in quite the way Gosling has over the last 20 years. It’s been impressive to say the least! His great performance in The Notebook kicked it all off back in 2004.
Mind you, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the actor got his start in the entertainment industry long before then. Gosling had just been a kid when he first stepped in front of a camera.
The Mickey Mouse Club years
Yep, in 1993 Gosling joined the talented cast of The Mickey Mouse Club, bagging a spot following a successful audition in Montreal, Canada. And boy, did that show boast quite the line-up!
Future superstars such as Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and Britney Spears were all part of it. Gosling subsequently moved down to Florida from his home in Ontario, Canada, for the shoot.
“They stopped using me”
Unfortunately for Gosling, though, that period wasn’t without its headaches. As he recalled in 2011 to The Daily Telegraph, “Most of the other [cast members] went to this apartment complex, but it was too expensive for my mother and me, so we lived in this trailer park.”
“Although as it became clear to the producers that I wasn’t nearly as talented as some of the other kids — I couldn’t sing or dance like they could — they stopped using me in the show so much.”
A bodyblow
Gosling elaborated on that during a different chat with Interview magazine in 2010. The actor said, “It was kind of depressing. I remember one time they put four of us in a dance routine, but I was so off.”
“I was on the end, so they just pushed the shot in closer on the other three guys to frame me out.” That’d be a gut-punch for anyone, let alone a kid!