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This is a huge big budget movie. Do you get nervous when you take on a project like this? Do you have any methods for staying focussed, meditation etc? Ryan Gosling: You know, I mean this is job I guess which is like anything, it’s practice, and I’ve been doing it since I was a kid. You benefit from trying to stay calm - or at least appearing to be calm. So I think I’ve gotten good at appearing to be calm. You said you spent your time off watching a lot of Netflix - was it hard to get into shape for the movie? The film is very physical? Ryan Gosling: Yeah, it was hard. But, you know, you lift heavy things and then you don’t eat a lot of other things. It takes a village you know? I had so much help, so many stunt performers helping me, training me, getting me into shape, teaching me how to fight. I had an amazing, kind of like the real ‘Gray Man’, this ex Delta Force member who was with me every day on set for every scene, giving me advice on how to behave or what to do. He had really great ideas that weren’t in the script, like you should always have Skittles on you because it’s a good source of energy. Or I would go into a room like a train car where I’m supposed to sleep and I was like, ‘What would you do?’ And he said, ‘I’d tie my shoelace to the door because if someone came in, it would wake you up’. So all that stuff, which I thought was really, you know, you couldn’t make it up, it just kind of comes from experience and I thought it gave the film a sort of special sauce. What was the best advice he gave to you? Ryan Gosling: I think those example. I mean, there’s lots. In every scene, he really had some kind of helpful detail that just added a kind of authenticity to the character that I thought helped separate it from other spy characters I’d seen before. Did you learn something from playing ken in the upcoming ‘Barbie’ movie as well? Ryan Gosling: Oh yeah, I can’t share it - but I can’t wait for it. In the film, Chris Evans’ character has a line ‘you look like a Ken doll’? was that already... ? Ryan Gosling: That wasn’t in the script. But they could feel my, what I like to call – Ken-ergy. They felt it, the Russos did at least. As a kid did you play with barbie dolls or action figures? Ryan Gosling: Yeah, I played with action figures. Which action film had the biggest impact on you as a kid? Ryan Gosling: Anything with action really, there wasn’t like just one. All of it. I think the ones that stood out to me were the ones that were funny and fun, you know? And I thought when I read this this had potential to be like that, to have that tone. Why are you feeling this shift to action from the movies you were making in your thirties? Ryan Gosling: I think I’m just more connected right now to the things that made me want to make films in the first place. Making the kind of movies that I loved growing up. I think maybe ten years ago I was in a different place. I was discovering new kinds of films and just being kind of educated about film in general and wanting to make those types of films. But the place I’m in now is more back to the films that started it all for me – action films and comedies. I just love action films, anything with action in the title. [laughs] Did you fall out of love with movies for a little while when you took a step back? Ryan Gosling: No, I think it’s like in any job, you’re in a relationship with it and you have kind of highs and lows. But I feel really lucky to be an actor and to be able to make the kind of films that I used to watch and made me want to do that. How old were you when you first started watching action movies? Ryan Gosling: I don’t know. Movies were always a part of my life. There was a deal at our movie store in the summer, like four movies for four bucks. So I would watch four movies a day and just living through the movies. Do you remember your first movie experience? Ryan Gosling: The first film I saw in a movie theatre was ‘Bloodsport’. I don’t know how old I was. But it was my first time in a movie theatre. I was way too