Ryan Gosling is a pretty smart guy.
He's navigated his career in such a way that he's producing one of the most diverse range of work of any actor in Hollywood today. Whether it be, Shane Black comedies (The Nice Guys), sequels to sci-fi epics (Blade Runner 2049) or Oscar favourites (La La Land).
Despite his astuteness when it comes to his work, it seems he will never be able to get his head around his internet fame. The 'Hey Girl' memes and the 'Ryan Gosling won't eat his cereal' craze bemuses him.
"I've never said that." Gosling told Variety about the 'Hey Girl' memes which generally comprise of a photo of Gosling alongside the phrase 'Hey Girl'. Any number of random sentiments generally follow, ranging from motivational quotes to promises of foot rubs on Friday nights in.
The 2013 Vine video “Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal,” which saw user Ryan McHenry hold a spoon to the TV as clips of Gosling turning away play, making it look like he’s rejecting his breakfast was another craze that took the internet by storm.
“That was strange,” he admits. “Just walking down the street, people would say, ‘Why won’t you eat your cereal? Are you too good for cereal?’”
McHenry passed away from cancer in May 2015 and Gosling posted a lovely tribute video of him finally eating his cereal.
He joined Twitter a few years ago, mainly just to stop an imposter account that people believed to be the real McCoy.
“I got a Twitter because some guy was pretending to be me. Someone told me, ‘I follow you on Twitter, you’re tweeting all the time!’ And that day that person had tweeted: ‘Just had a taco downtown. Gotta love those Mexicans.’ I was like, ‘All right, this has got to stop.’”
However once he announced himself to the Twitterverse, the reaction was a little unexpected. “Immediately, I started getting angry tweets saying: ‘You’re a bad you. The other guy was a better you.’”
Despite not really understanding the unique internet fame he has acquired, there's no denying that Gosling has a good sense of humour about it.