Inverview Magazine Interview with Ryan Gosling

THIS ACTOR DIVES INTO DIFFICULT TRUTHS, AND TURNS AUDIENCES INTO BELIEVERS

Forget cloning. Genome, schmenome. Science should focus its microscope on the decision-making processes of The Mickey Mouse Club's casting director. Pop culture's petri dish, the show was home to Britney and Christina, two-fifths of 'NSync, Keri Russell and Ryan Gosling--at once.

Though the last name in that list doesn't yet have the familiar ring (or "ka-ching") that the others do, it soon will. The 20-year-old star of The Believer, Sundance's Dramatic Grand Jury prizewinning film by Henry Bean, is the real deal. Gosling's character, a Jewish Nazi, is ripe with contradiction, ablaze with passion; his energy lifts The Believer from "movie of the week" material to the most engaging indie of the season. And to think he almost didn't get the part. "They were looking at big names," recalls Gosling, whose best prior film credit was a bit in Remember the Titans. "I begged my agent, 'Tell them I know I'm not gonna get the part, but I'd really appreciate it if they'd let me come in, because I'll never get to read lines like this again."

Don't confuse Gosling's moxie for confidence. Because he'd never had a sizeable film role ("I'd done nothing to prove I could do this movie") and because the story is so difficult--The Believer has provoked objections from some religious organizations and, as yet, has not found a distributor--he was unsure how audiences would respond: "Watching them was the most exciting thing--seeing people cringe, laugh ... It justified the work we did on the movie, and personally, from that moment on, I've walked a little
taller--I've considered myself an actor." Something the Mickey casting director knew all along.

- Scott Lyle Cohen