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Greta Gerwig says Ryan Gosling wanted to fight his mink coat in Barbie's 'I'm Just Ken’ scene

"Somewhere there’s a rehearsal footage of this.”

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Published on December 16, 2023 03:44PM EST

Ryan Gosling was ready for Ken’s faux fur to become his foe fur.

While visiting The Late Show on Thursday, Barbie writer and director Greta Gerwig revealed that Gosling originally pitched an idea for his character’s iconic “I’m Just Ken” scene in which he would square off against his now-famous mink coat.

“One of the ideas that Ryan had was that he would have a dance duet with his mink and that the mink would be fighting him, and then love him, and then fight him again, eventually defeat him, and that he would be birthed anew out of the mink,” she recalled. “And somewhere there’s a rehearsal footage of this.”

While Gerwig joked that the evidence now resides in “the vault” and won’t be released anytime soon, she noted that Gosling and his casemates’ ideas helped shape Barbie.

“Even though it didn’t end up being in the movie, it was that kind of openness and everybody bringing such brilliant, wild ideas that allowed it to happen in its form,” she told host Stephen Colbert. “So we had a fun week exploring what it would be if he did his mink ballet.”

Earlier, Gerwig explained that her and Gosling's idea of Ken having a signature coat was inspired by Sylvester Stallone. “He wore wonderful coats," she said, "and we were texting back and forth with pictures, and so we decided Ken should have this faux mink.”

She also revealed that she knew from the very first drafts of the film that Gosling would make the perfect Ken.

“He’s an amazing, genius actor, dramatic actor, everything,” Gerwig said. “I always knew he was extremely funny. I mean he is extremely funny in lots of movies but also his SNL appearances. He’s one of the great, all-time SNL hosts. I said, ‘I’ve written this for you,’ and he eventually agreed with me.'”

Watch Gerwig discuss the mink brawl that could have been in the clip above.

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Greta Gerwig says Ryan Gosling wanted to fight his mink coat in Barbie's 'I'm Just Ken’ scene

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