7 things you probably didn't know about 'Barbie' star Ryan Gosling

"He's such a good actor," Gosling told MTV News in 2022. "You've got action, but you've got these amazing characters at the center of it."

Gosling's adoration for the "Rocky" star dates back to his childhood.

"I would try to channel Rocky growing up, to psych myself up for some of the challenges I was facing," he told Gotham magazine in 2021. "Everything about that film, from the theme to 'Eye of the Tiger' to Stallone having to sell his dog to get it made, can strike a chord in anyone looking for the inspiration to keep on swinging."

Despite Gosling and his enviable abs being the source of endless memes and gifs, Gosling has never graced the cover of People's annual Sexiest Man Alive issue.

"They tried a few times, especially during his huge year in 2011," an anonymous source told TheWrap in November 2014, with the publication adding that multiple attempts were shut down by Gosling's team.

"The consensus was he's too serious for it, too artsy," the source said.

Gosling and Carell spoke about the time they previously crossed paths during a 2010 conversation for Interview magazine.

The pilot for a show called "The Unbelievables" was filmed in 1998 or 1999, with a premise similar to the animated film "The Incredibles."

"It was about a family of superheroes," Gosling recalled.

"I think what surprised me most when we worked together was how funny you are, because I think you've built such a strong career on your dramatic work," Carell said.

Gosling later spoke fondly about witnessing Carell's comedic genius during a 2011 interview with The Guardian.

"I remember watching him and he was so funny that the boom guy laughed too much to hold up the boom," Gosling said. "It was the first time it occurred to me that you could be so good it was a problem."

"I do like to knit actually," Gosling told GQ Australia in 2013.

"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," he explained. "It was one of the most relaxing days of my life."

Gosling added: "If I had to design my perfect day, that would be it. And you get something out of it at the end. You get a nice present. For someone who wants an oddly shaped, off-putting scarf."

Gosling named the actor during an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in October 2017.

He previously told Company magazine that he "didn't do well at school and TV was my only friend."

"Then, one day, I saw Raquel Welch on 'The Muppet Show,'" he continued. "She was dancing with this big furry spider and I immediately fell in love. She was the first crush I ever had, and I thought, 'How do I get to meet this woman?' And then I thought, 'Well, she's on TV, so to meet her I have to get on TV myself."

Welch commented on Gosling during a 2012 interview with GQ.

"I just think he's so interesting, as an actor and as young man," she said, adding that he "won me over" with his performance in "The Notebook."

"He's not doing the obvious thing, like a lot of guys do," Welch said of his appeal. "They know they're so good-looking, and you can tell that a mile away when they walk in the room. And you wonder if you're going to have to fight for the mirror between the two of you. You don't get that from Ryan Gosling."

Gosling was 12 when he relocated to Florida to be part of the show alongside future A-list musicians. In past interviews, he recalled feeling like he wasn't in the same class as his peers.

"It was kind of depressing because when I got there, they realized that I wasn't really up to snuff in comparison with what some of the other kids were able to do," Gosling told Steve Carell in 2010.

"I remember one time they put four of us in a dance routine, but I was so off," Gosling said. "I was on the end, so they just pushed the shot in closer on the other three guys to frame me out. I would just come in at the beginning of the show and then come back at the end, and occasionally I'd have a sketch here or there, but I didn't end up working that much, which was disheartening."

"Everybody was at, like, prodigy level," he said in a cover story for the June/July 2023 issue of GQ. "I certainly wasn't a child prodigy. I didn't know why I was there. And I think that was the consensus."

Gosling said that this is why he was relegated to being a background person on the show.

"But it was all a great experience in a way because it helped me figure out what I wasn't going to be good at," he said. "Which is important to learn too."

Damien Chazelle's 2016 musical film stars Gosling as a jazz pianist named Sebastian Wilder and Emma Stone as an aspiring actor named Mia Dolan.

During one scene early in the movie, Mia's emotional audition for a role gets interrupted by someone walking into the room to deliver a message to the casting director. Gosling told Variety in 2016 that the moment was drawn from his own experience.

"It's wonderfully realized by Emma," praises Gosling. "It was actually wonderfully cathartic to see up there."