The Gos on break

Behold, a rare striped Gosling spotting has been recorded this week in California. That’s Ryan Gosling, in a striped vintage Gucci jacket, out and about in Santa Barbara. I forgot that he and Eva Mendes moved their family up there, but that’s a contributing factor in their low profile. There are far less paparazzi hot spots in Santa Barbara than LA, and Eva and Ryan can disappear when they want to.

Since The Fall Guy, Ryan has been keeping a low profile. He’s maybe probably involved with Star Wars, and he has a movie due next year, Project Hail Mary, from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, but other than that, The Gos has powered down of late. After the non-stop Barbie year and then the disappointment of The Fall Guy, I don’t blame him. Time for a recalibration. Ryan Gosling has never been a celebrity who likes to sustain attention, and over the last couple of years, he got a LOT of attention. 

But down time has long been part of his success. Ryan Gosling goes away, he lets us miss him. He went on a run in the 2010s: The Big Short, The Nice Guys, La La Land, Song to Song, Blade Runner 2049, First Man…and then nothing for four years (he also took a break in the late 2000s after his breakout run earlier in the decade). Gosling didn’t appear in a feature film from 2018-2022, and I’m not sure I count The Gray Man as a “feature film”. But then it was The Gray Man, Barbie, and The Fall Guy, and now he seems to be on a mini-break from Hollywood before potentially kicking back into high gear with Star Wars. It takes time to build up a cushion to support it, but for actors, letting us miss them can be a good strategy. Then it’s special whenever they have a new movie out, like a little treat.