Ryan Gosling has a storied career of successes. From The Notebook to La La Land, he has one of the most magnetic presences on the silver screen. Gosling’s performances over the years have earned him plenty of critical praise in addition to three Oscar nominations and a 2017 Golden Globes win. But, according to the Barbie star, the only critics he cares about are his two daughters. Now, Gosling is revealing a note one of his kids gave him that influenced a choice he made for his latest film, Project Hail Mary, which is getting great early reactions.
During a recent interview with Extra, Gosling was asked about how his daughters interact with his work and if they are ever critical of his films. He explained that they aren’t critical in the traditional sense, but they do tend to give him notes and opinions that influence the way he thinks about things. For example, when he was preparing for Phil Lord and Chris Miller's Project Hail Mary, one of his girls made a humorous (but astute) suggestion about a key aspect of his look for the film: He said:
…. I was playing with looks for the character, and my daughter walked by, I had some glasses on. She said, ‘You look smarter in glasses. And I was like, ‘Then I will. I need to look smart in this, so I’ll wear glasses.’.... It was a great note.
I think this is super cute and kind of a reflection of how Gosling's daughters aren’t used to seeing him in glasses. I see the vision, because the audience isn’t used to seeing Gosling in glasses either. So the difference allows people to see him in a fresh way, more as a character than a movie star. Whether or not it makes him look “smarter” remains to be seen, but I feel like glasses have historically been a trick in movies to make a character seem smarter and more reliable.
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Gosling is going to have to seem smart and reliable in Project Hail Mary, so his daughter has good instincts. In the upcoming 2026 movie schedule entry, Gosling plays Ryland Grace, an astronaut who wakes up with amnesia while on a mission to save Earth, while simultaneously befriending an alien named Rocky. The film is based on Andy Weir's book of the same name, and the novel famously uses lots of science to explain Ryland’s process for trying to save earth. I’m not sure the glasses are going to do all the heavy lifting, but it’s a cute addition to make Gosling seem more like a hyper-intelligent astronaut in outer space.
Not only is Gosling an excellent actor and compelling movie star, but he seems like a cool dad as well. He seems to know where his priorities are and wants to somehow involve his daughters in the creative process. The glasses are a small detail, but they ended up in the movie, so I'd imagine the directors and costume designers liked that approach as well. Who knows, maybe the younger Goslings will be working behind the scenes on movies sometime in the future.
You can see Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary (which Gosling's partner, Eva Mendes, calls a "masterpiece") when it hits theaters on March 20, 2026.
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