Ryan Gosling’s Barbie & Ken Flash Mob Surprise Moved Greta Gerwig To Tears

Ryan Gosling’s latest stunt was more than Kenough to move Greta Gerwig to tears. In honor of the Barbie director’s 40th birthday on Aug. 4, the actor dispatched a surprise Ken and Barbie flash mob to her Pilates class. After a group of Kens performed Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” from the film’s soundtrack, a crew of Barbies appeared and performed to Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” much to Gerwig’s delight. The movie’s official Instagram account captioned the flash mob video, “As Kens know…. Sometimes the only way to express your feelings is through song & dance! Ken Ryan sent these special Barbies and Kens to start Greta’s birthday with all the feelings!!”

Gerwig had plenty of feelings of her own, too. After dubbing the birthday surprise “so beautiful” and appearing to shed a few happy tears, the Academy Award nominee admitted she had “no idea” who planned the spectacle. When a voice from off camera told her to “think of a bagpiper,” she immediately realized Gosling was behind the unique gift. Gerwig shared a story with GQ in January about how the actor unexpectedly sent a Scottish man in a full kilt to play the bagpipes at a pre-filming cast sleepover he was unable to attend. “And then he read a speech from Braveheart. And then he left,” she recounted.

A milestone birthday is hardly all that Gosling, Gerwig, and the team have to celebrate right now. Now that Barbie has reportedly earned more than $1 billion at the global box office within three weeks of its July 21 release, Gerwig is now the first female director with a billion-dollar movie. Meanwhile, “I’m Just Ken” debuted at No. 87 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Gosling’s first entry on the music chart, while the movie’s soundtrack entered the Billboard 200 in the No. 2 slot.

Gerwig also previously revealed that Gosling’s 2017 Saturday Night Live appearance ultimately led to his casting as “Beach Ken,” opposite Margot Robbie in the titular role. “You know those actors you can… just sort of feel that they know what’s funny, and I always felt that about him,” Gerwig said during a June 20 appearance on the SmartLess podcast. “And then I’m a big fan of all of his SNLs, I always thought he was great on SNL… He did ‘Guy That Just Got a Boat’ on ‘Weekend Update,’ and it’s so good.”

She went on to share that she wrote the part with Gosling’s unique brand of Kenergy in mind. “We wrote his name into the script and everything… and [Gosling’s name] was everywhere,” Gerwig added. “And then when we handed them the script, the studio was like ‘Oh, it’s so wonderful that you know Ryan.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Ryan. I’ve never met Ryan, I have no idea.'”

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