Ryan Gosling made Ken an official main character at Oscars 2024, performing “I’m Just Ken” to the crowd, complete with dozens of men, Slash, Mark Ronson, singalongs with Emma Stone, and so much more.
Before the performance, anticipation was high. “It’s going to be a very big performance,” Academy Awards executive producer Raj Kapoor told Deadline. “You’ll see that. It is in rehearsal. I was down there yesterday, and there’s a lot of fun to be had when you watch this number, but yeah, I think we’re going big. I’ll say that. We’re going big.”
And as Robbie told Variety ahead of the Oscars, “He jumped at this. He’s going to crush it. I’m so excited. I think he’s going to be the highlight of the whole night. I think a lot of people are going to be tuning in for this specific performance.”
Her prediction came true. At Oscars 2024, Gosling started in the crowd, singing to Margot Robbie, and was joined by 65+ male backup dancers. He made his way to the stage alongside Mark Ronson on guitar, before reuniting with the Barbie movie Kens: Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Scott Evans. Gosling broke wood with a karate chop, surfed into the air amid huge retro Barbie face cutouts, and sang his little heart out, even offering the mic to Margot Robbie, America Ferrera, and Greta Gerwig.
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Producer Mark Ronson recently talked about the hit as the song that almost wasn’t even part of Barbie. “At that first screening the song wasn’t working. I panicked,” he told The Times. “The humour wasn’t translating and Greta [Gerwig, director] had to fight. The studio asked her how much she really needed it and she said, ‘With every inch of my body.’ And then there was a big swing.”