Before Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling shared top billing in the latest big action movie playing in theaters, The Fall Guy, the two movie stars shared the same movie release date in 2023 when the phenomenon known as Barbenheimer shook cinemas across the globe. Gosling, of course, played Ken in Greta Gerwig’s neon pink comedy Barbie, whilst Blunt portrayed J. Robert Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty in Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic thriller. Then they hilariously came together during the 2024 Oscars to banter about the simultaneous releases.
When Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling shared the Oscar stage to talk Barbenheimer, it was one of the best moments of the night. Recently, while Blunt was promoting The Fall Guy on The Howard Stern Show, she shared a behind-the-scenes account about how the funny bit came together. In her words:
Well, Ryan wrote it, so that’s why it worked. And it was great and it was personal to us and he knows how to write for both of us now and so that’s what we would do on Fall Guy. I know how to do schtick with him. He’s an easy person to bounce off. So I knew it wasn’t going to tank.
As Blunt revealed, Ryan Gosling actually wrote the whole bit for the two of them, so the actress knew she was in good hands when they took the stage. She continued:
I love him. He’s amazing.
Barbenheimer had moviegoers going to theaters for five hours in the day to watch both movies, dressing up in pink and suits and ties, or arguing which movie to watch first when they came out on the same weekend in July. It even apparently has inspired a Barbenheimer movie! So, it was a blast to see these two actors make fun of the cinematic rivalry, of sorts. Check out the Oscars moment:
Blunt started with a fun jab at Barbie, saying it wasn’t “much of a rivalry” considering how Oppenheimer dominated award season. Then Gosling quipped that the double feature was called Barbenheimer over Oppenbarbie because the biopic was ”riding Barbie’s coattails all summer.” Which is technically true considering Barbie made 1.4 billion worldwide, whilst Oppenheimer earned $972 million at the global box office.
As Blunt acknowledged during the Oscar moment, Oppenheimer did very much sweep the award side of things, taking home Best Picture that night along with six other Oscar wins. Nolan won the prize for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, Robert Downey Jr. beat out Ryan Gosling for Best Supporting Actor after much debate on how that would shake out, Cillian Murphy won Best Actor, and the movie also earned trophies for Best Original Score, Cinematography and Film Editing. Barbie, on the other hand, only won one Oscar for Billie Eilish’s original song, “What Was I Made For?”
You can check out Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy, now playing in theaters.