"It just seemed funny": Mark Ronson spills inspiration behind Ryan Gosling's power ballad 'I'm Just Ken'

American actress and director Greta Gerwig's Barbie hit theatres on July 21, 2023, and offered viewers more than just a gazillion shades of pink, satirical comedy, and crippling existential crises.

The movie also brought several musical numbers that were completely in line with the themes and the quirks of the characters. Ryan Gosling's powerhouse performance to I'm Just Ken was one of the peak moments in the movie and viewers enjoyed it greatly.

In an interview with Vanity Fair on July 11, 2023, music producer Mark Ronson, known for Uptown Funk, dished details on the conceptualization of the soundtrack:

"It just seemed funny"

It appears that it appealed to the producer simply because it was "funny" and paired with Ryan Gosling's Ken well.

The soundtrack, with cleverly engineered lyrics that captures Ken's eternal position as merely an appendage to Barbie and his feelings of being hurt by Barbie's constant refusal to recognize and validate his existence, is indeed hilarious.

The music producer further said:

"It felt a little bit emo, like, ‘This poor guy. He’s so hot, but can’t get the time of day.'"

"It just seemed funny," the music producer said (Image via Warner Brothers Pictures)

Mark Ronson, who is also the executive producer of the Barbie soundtrack, also mentioned that one of lyrics used in the song, "I'm just Ken, anywhere else I'd be a 10", came to him "instantly" and it refers to the way in which Ken was being continually overshadowed by Barbie's radiating presence.

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Mark Ronson spills more details behind the ideation of "I'm Just Ken" for "vocal powerhouse" Ryan Gosling

Mark Ronson also revealed in the interview that it was primarily Gosling's idea to perform the song in the movie, and that Greta Gerwig re wrote an entire scene to accomodate the performance in the movie.

The seven-time grammy winner also told the magazine that he couldn't let anyone else other than The Notebook actor singing the song and once the actor heard a recording of the demo, he immediately fell in love with it.

Ronson, however, did not want Greta Gerwig to think that he's trying to provide the "funny" in the movie, but the director agreed with Gosling.

Mark Ronson says that Greta Gerwig rewrote an entire scene to make sure Gosling could deliver his performance (Image via Warner Brothers Pictures)

Commenting further on the character of Ken, and how the song was a perfect fit for him to vocalize his perspective of things, the music producer said:

"You really fall in love with this hapless, but immediately sympathetic figure."

True, with equally comic and heart-rending lyrics like, "Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blonde fragility?", Ryan Gosling's Ken did win our hearts.

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"This dude is a vocal powerhouse!": Mark Ronson gushes over Ryan Gosling's musical delivery

The music producer was all praise for Ryan Gosling, who, according to him, did everything perfectly, not just with his acting, but also with his impressive vocal skills. Ronson said:

"He really got [that] it had to walk this line of not being funny or parody...But obviously, the song is also kind of ridiculous at times. So he was really amazing, and when he really did start hitting the big notes, I was like, ‘This dude is a vocal powerhouse!'"

Greta Gerwig's directorial Barbie is full of musical numbers (Image via IMDb)

The Greta Gerwig directorial is currently smashing Box Office records even after being released on the same date as Christopher Nolan's directorial Oppenheimer which was also a hugely anticapted release for movie buffs.

Margot Robbie's latest global box office collection is currently at $472.6 million and will cross the $500 million mark soon.