Eva Mendes has defended her husband Ryan Gosling following the backlash for his Best Actor Oscar nom for playing Ken in Barbie

Eva Mendes has stuck up for Ryan Gosling getting a Best Actor Oscar nom for Barbie

He is more than Kenough to her


Eva Mendes has defended her husband Ryan Gosling from all the drama after he got nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his turn in Barbie.

The whirlwind response comes after titular actress Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig didn’t appear in their individual categories. The pair were both acknowledged in the production category as part of the film’s eight Academy Award nominations. The entire list of 2024 Academy Award nominations arrived on Monday. The three front runners were Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and Killers of the Flower Moon, with respective 13, 11, and 10 nods each.

In response to all the so-called snub hoo-ha, Eva took to Instagram to pipe up in her husband’s defence. Underneath a Rolling Stone op-ed titled ‘Sorry to Be the One to Say It, but Ryan Gosling is Giving Major Cringe as Ken in Barbie’, she wrote: “So proud of my man. So much hate when he took on this role. So many people trying to shame him for doing it.

“Despite all the #Notmyken ridicule and articles written about him, he created this completely original, hilarious, heartbreaking, now iconic character and took it all the way to Oscars.”

“So beyond proud to be this Ken’s Barbie,” Eva said, rounding off the post.

Eva – who has two daughters, Esmerelda and Amada, with him – made her declaration after Ryan posted a statement about how “honoured” he was to be recognised alongside other talents of the past year like Cillian Murphy, Paul Giamatti and Bradley Cooper. Alongside his gratitude, he made a painstaking effort to point out how he felt that “there is no Ken without Barbie”, concluding that he felt Margot and Greta should have been included in their respective solo categories.

“I am extremely honoured to be nominated by my colleagues alongside such remarkable artists in a year of so many great films. And I never thought I’d being saying this, but I’m also incredibly honoured and proud that it’s for portraying a plastic doll named Ken.

“But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film,” he continued. “No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius.

“To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.”

Ryan concluded his statement by mentioning how “happy” he was for his fellow co-star America Ferrera for getting named in the Best Supporting Actress list with Jodie Foster, Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.

“Having said that, I am so happy for America Ferrera and the other incredible artists who contributed their talents to making this such a groundbreaking film,” he said.

America also added that she was “incredibly disappointed” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ apparent omission.

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Photo credit via Barbie and Eva Mendes