SNabs aren't exactly uncommon during awards season — especially since it's the only time of year when anyone actually uses the word “snub” — but Tuesday's Oscar nominations are the latest in a series of turbo snubs. It brought about indescribable results. The Academy managed to cause a historic firestorm by failing to recognize Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the director and lead actress of Barbie. Social media is furious at the snub, and we all know how difficult it is to anger social media.
Luckily, the white knight came to save us all. Ryan Gosling, who was nominated for his performance as Ken, released a statement expressing his righteous anger at his detractors. “There would be no Ken without Barbie, and no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making and world-famous film,” he wrote. . “Without talent, guts, and genius, it would be impossible for anyone in this film to be recognized. To say I'm disappointed they weren't nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.” Probably not.”
You're welcome to question the full validity of his statements, but the Oscars consistently have five nominees for Best Director and 10 films for Best Picture, making it statistically unlikely that this kind of disrespect would occur. There's a very good chance that Gosling will have his opinions, but you can't argue with the fact that he has his opinions. Please point accurately to the pulse here. The world was at a loss and confused when Gerwig and Robbie weren't nominated, but Ryan Gosling was able to voice that frustration in one fell swoop.
This was a clever move, as there is a world in which Gosling's nomination made him the villain of the story. As a meme shared by a more basic friend on Instagram yesterday explained, it's like the whole point of Barbie for men to take credit for women's work, and so public opinion is giving him credit on this very point. Reasons that would not be difficult to blame. But after defending Gerwig and Robbie so fervently, that won't happen now.
This marks another step forward in an awards season in which he has barely missed a beat. During Jo Koy's no-joke, bizarrely defensive Golden Globes monologue (during which Jo Koy chimed in about Barbie's “plastic boobs”), the definitive response was Gosling's. Ta. When the camera cut to him, perhaps expecting a smile, the world probably saw him grimacing at Koi, in exactly the same way they were grimacing at Koi. And when his song “I'm Just Ken” won the Critics Choice Award, his reaction, which can best be described as dumbfounded and incomprehensible, also reflected the public mood. Succeeded.
Of course, if you're looking for the opposite, look no further than Oliver Stone's recent criticism of Gosling. Earlier this week, Stone said Gosling was “wasting his time” by appearing in movies like Barbie, which he said “contributes to the infantilization of Hollywood.” The backlash to his comments was so overwhelming that Stone was forced to tweet an apology using a screen capture from a Notes app, in the traditional form of public humiliation.
Gosling's Oscar statement can also be read as a response to this. Ever since Barbie was released, Gosling has been so committed to this film and promoted it with such sincere enthusiasm that it's unreasonable to think that he single-handedly financed it. There may not be. Ryan Gosling has always believed completely in Barbie and his place in it, so his statement simply refers to Barbie as a much-hyped bubblegum movie based on a hugely popular toy IP. It also serves as an attack on perceived detractors.
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All eyes will therefore be on Gosling at the Oscars ceremony in March. He has so far shown a perfect eye for the mood of the nation, which is why he is the one with whom we experience the ceremony. When Barbie wins something, he has a cutout, and when he doesn't, he gets an even sharper cutout. At this point, Robert Downey Jr. is such a strong contender that other nominees don't even need to be present, so it's still unlikely that he will win the award. But it doesn't matter, because Ryan Gosling is now so much more than that. He is a nominee for the National Award for Best Supporting Actor.
It's also worth pointing out that America Ferrara was also nominated for Barbie and voiced her disdain for Gerwig and Robbie's snub. However, everyone decided to focus on Ryan Gosling and not her. Because, again, that's kind of the whole point of Barbie.
