He's just Ken, but to wife Eva Mendes, Ryan Gosling is everything.
While the actress rarely works the red carpet as the Barbie to Gosling's Ken—"We don't do those things together," she explained to one fan on Instagram last year when asked if she'd be dolling up for the Barbie press tour—she's consistently there to remind him that he's Kenough.
"Always by my man," she captioned a March 10 Instagram of herself outside his dressing room backstage at the 2024 Oscars. (While she wasn't among the stars on the red carpet, you can check out Gosling and the other celebs here.)
So whether or not she's among the crowd at Los Angeles Dolby Theatre to see if Gosling bests American Fiction's Sterling K. Brown, Killers of the Flower Moon's Robert De Niro, Oppenheimer's Robert Downey Jr. and Poor Things' Mark Ruffalo for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role trophy (see all the nominated stars here), there's no doubt she'll be telling him how good he is at beach.
"So proud of my man," she wrote Jan. 24 on Instagram when the Oscar nominations, including eight for Barbie, were announced, posting a screengrab from a 2022 article that suggested Gosling was "giving major cringe" as Ken. "So much hate when he took on this role. So many people trying to shame him for doing it. Despite all the #Notmyken ridicule and articles written about him, he created this completely original, hilarious, heartbreaking, now iconic character and took it all the way to Oscars. So beyond proud to be this Ken's Barbie."
So, yes, she'll be cheering loud—whether from the audience, Gosling's dressing room or at home on the couch with their daughters Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7—when the Academy Award nominee takes to the stage to perform the Barbie breakout track "I'm Just Ken" alongside the song's cowriter Mark Ronson.
"It's an absolutely bananas spectacle," Ronson told Live from E!: Oscars host Laverne Cox on the red carpet. "We're only going to ever get to perform this song maybe once with Ryan, he's kind of put us all on his shoulders, or Ken's shoulders. We were backstage before like, 'We can't believe we're a part of this.' So it's very exciting."
And while of course Gosling is hoping that his life in plastic translates to a fantastic night at the 2024 Academy Awards, his life at home with Mendes is way more than Kenough.
"I got to meet the girl of my dreams, Eva Mendes," he told the crowd while accepting the the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Jan. 13 event. "I have two dream children. I dreamed of one day making movies and now movies have made my life a dream."
"So the way I see it, there's no way I've contributed half as much to cinema as cinema has contributed to me," he continued. "But the idea that I might've given something back to the thing that has given so much to me is too great an honor for me to express."
Before seeing if he adds more hardware to his collection, check Gosling and all the stars at the 2024 Oscars.
Zendaya
In Armani Privé and Bulgari jewelry.
Florence Pugh
Del Core SS24 RTW and Bulgari jewelry.
DaVine Joy Randolph
In custom Louis Vuitton.
Jennifer Lawrence
In custom Christian Dior Haute Couture with Swarovski jewelry.
Carey Mulligan
In custom Balenciaga Couture and Fred Leighton.
Lily Gladstone
In Gucci x Joe Big Mountain.
Greta Lee
In Loewe.
Kate McKinnon
In Bucherer Fine Jewellery.
Greta Gerwig
In Gucci.
Robert Downey Jr.
In Saint Laurent and Tiffany & Co.
Margot Robbie
In Versace FW24 RTW and Fred Leighton.
Ariana Grande
In custom Giambattista Valli Haute Couture with Tiffany & Co. jewelry.
Dwayne Johnson
In Dolce & Gabbana.
Charlize Theron
Christian Dior Haute Couture.
Ryan Gosling & Mandi Gosling
Ryan Gosling in custom Gucci.
Mark Consuelos & Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa in archive Donna Karan New York.
Becky G
In custom Vera Wang and custom Zales jewelry.
Emma Stone
In custom Louis Vuitton.
Lupita Nyong'o
In custom Armani Privé.
America Ferrera
In custom Atelier Versace.
Hailee Steinfeld
In Elie Saab SS24 Couture and Chopard jewelry.
Kirsten Dunst & Jesse Plemons
Kirsten Dunst in Gucci with Fred Leighton jewelry.
Jodie Foster
In Loewe, Kwiat and Fred Leighton.
Billie Eilish
In Chanel.
Ke Huy Quan
In Giorgio Armani.
Gabrielle Union & Dwyane Wade
Gabrielle Union in Carolina Herrera PF24 with Tiffany & Co. jewelry and Dwyane Wade in custom Ateliee Versace.
Matt Bomer
In custom Brunello Cucinelli.
Roger Federer
Jessica Lange
Tamsin Egerton & Josh Hartnet