Hey, girl.
If you’re obsessed with Ryan Gosling (much like 99.9 percent of the population), then you’re going to want to read this list of random facts fans didn’t know about him.
RELATED STORIES
This includes how he met Eva Mendes, how he almost wasn’t Noah in The Notebook and — gasp! — how he was once punched in the face by Harrison Ford.
1. He’s Canadian.
Yep, this dreamboat is actually a Canuck! He was born on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario.
He’s always been proud of his small-town roots and has even credited it for keeping him humble.
“I think it was very helpful to grow up in Canada, or in a small town,” Gosling told CBC News in Los Angeles.
“I think if you grow up here, it might be hard to remember that there’s a world outside of it,” he continued.
“I always felt like I had something to go back to so the stakes weren’t ever that high.”
2. He was on the *Mickey Mouse Club*.
Yep, the actor can sing!
He sang next to fellow big names, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera from 1993 to 1995.
He’s remained close with some of his costars, including Britney Spears who auditioned for The Notebook .
3. He was a child actor.
In addition to The Mickey Mouse Club Ryan was busy during the ’90s with a few different TV shows.
He played the character Greg on Goosebumps and Jamie Leary on Are You Afraid of The Dark? .
4. He got fired from a role for being “too fat.”
Yikes. There was a serious miscommunication when Gosling took on the role of the dad, Jack Salmon, in The Lovely Bones .
He took it upon himself to gain 60 pounds to play the character.
But this didn’t go down well when he showed up on set.
“I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong,” Gosling said. “Then I was fat and unemployed.”
Yikes! Thankfully, he’s not alone, as these other celebs have also been fired .
5. He fell for Eva Mendes, on the set of *The Place Beyond the Times*.
You may have heard that these two first met on set, but Mendes has said that that’s not true.
They actually knew each other for years before, but their romance didn’t blossom until filming started.
“There’s such special work in The Place Beyond the Pines,” she told *Oprah Magazine*.
“We had known each other for a while already, so to work together was really exciting.”
Since the couple is notoriously private, it hasn’t been revealed yet if they’re married. They do, however, have two daughters: Esmeralda and Amada.
6. He almost wasn’t Noah in *The Notebook*.
If you can believe it, Tom Cruise was almost the smoldering leading man!
That’s because director Steven Speilberg, who got the rights to the book in 1998, chose Cruise as Noah.
That’s not all.
New Line Cinema (the movie’s production company) was unsure about Ryan.
“When I told [New Line Cinema] I wanted to hire Ryan for the lead, they kind of looked at me like I was out of my mind,” the film’s director, Nick Cassavetes, revealed to VH1 .
7. He hated Rachel McAdams for the first half of filming *The Notebook*.
It seems hard to believe now, considering their chemistry in the film and the fact that they dated off-screen for four years.
But it did happen. At one point, Ryan even tried to replace Rachel!
Speaking of their four-year relationship, they split due busy schedules.
“Show business is the bad guy,” he told The Times , according to The Huffington Post .
“When both people are in show business it’s too much show business. It takes all of the light, so nothing else can grow.”
8. Justin Timberlake’s mom was his legal guardian.
Ryan and Justin go wayy back.
When Ryan was filming The Mickey Mouse Club , his mother had to stay in Canada and continue to work her job. Justin’s mom became a legal guardian for six months so Ryan could continue to work.
9. He got a concussion while filming *First Man*.
Things certainly got “spacy” for Gosling when he took on the role of an astronaut, Neil Armstrong.
He told Jimmy Kimmel that his head got banged up during the physical training for the movie.
He explained that he was in an intense multi-axis trainer at NASA for six to eight hours.
“So I started to sort of smell a rat up here [he pointed at his head]. Something was wrong. That, and getting banged around in the capsules and hitting my head, that something might be wrong.”
10. Ryan changed Eva’s mind about wanting kids.
“It was the furthest thing from my mind,” the Hitch actress told Women’s Health .
Then, “Ryan Gosling happened. I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have…not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him.”
11. He and Mendes are “controlling” parents.
“We’re very controlling. I think what the term is—we’re always laughing at these terms—I think we would be ‘bulldozing parents,'” she said on The Kelly Clarkson Show .
Hey, at least they’re honest!
12. He was accidentally punched in the face by Harrison Ford.
Gosling was simply at the wrong place, wrong time, when the punch took place whiling filming Blade Runner 2024 .
“Ryan Gosling’s face was where it should not have been,” Ford explained to GQ .
“His job was to be out of the range of the punch. My job was also to make sure that I pulled the punch.”
He continued on, saying that since they were moving, the angle had to be perfect for the camera to capture it.
Oh well, it’s practically an honor to be punched by Harrison!
