Why I feel bad about Ryan Gosling's filler face

It's bad Kenergy to point out he looks different

Like most of you, I am still living off that Ken Oscar performance and quite frankly, it might have been a better result than Ryan Gosling winning one of those golden statues.

However, as someone that has followed Ryan’s career from the early days, I couldn’t help but notice that, he’s been looking a little different lately.

I think one of the most attractive things about Ryan is that he doesn’t have that typical Hollywood face. His eyes are a bit smaller and his nose a bit crooked, but it’s that uniqueness that adds to his charm.

Recently, however, he’s lost that difference and I can’t quite explain it, but it’s like looking at Bradley Cooper post facelift. Which is the same as looking at Ellen Degeneres, which is the same as looking at Kris Jenner, which is the same as looking at Kim Kardashian.

In their quest for perfection, celebrities who looked nothing alike to begin with, start to resemble one another. That’s not hyperbole either, because tonight - just before writing this - I realised that Ryan (like Bradley), is on his way to an Ellen transformation and I just want someone to intervene and tell him how beautiful he looks naturally.

Unlike Bradley, I don’t think Ryan has had a facelift. Rather a heavy dose of cheek and under eye filler. For that, smuggling a couple of snooker balls look.

After finding before and after shots that showed the difference, I went to post them on my Instagram stories. Not in a mean way, but in a, ‘I love Ryan, please chill on the cheek filler, way’. Boosted by the fact that women’s faces are judged so heavily, why can’t men have the same treatment?

But, I stopped myself because something about it just felt a bit shitty and then, well, then, I remembered what everyone said about Ryan when the first trailer for Barbie was released.

“That’s so sad that man is ancient,” was just one of the many Tweets made about his appearance. Along with, “Ryan Gosling looks old and washed out in this to me. I think it’d have made more sense with someone younger at this point.”

#NotMyKen was trending and Ryan, being the gent that he is, laughed off the criticism, pointing out there were many other Kens in the movie.

Ultimately, Ryan had the last laugh because I think we can all agree, as unpolitically correct as it might be, he really did steal not only the Oscars, but that entire film and personally, I’m so glad that everyone who’s never seen Crazy, Stupid, Love, knows how funny he is.

Is it any wonder then, that this change in Ryan’s face, which I’m assuming is down to fillers, came around the time of the jugganaut that was the Barbie movie promo tour?

At 37, I know the face I see in the mirror, is not the same one it used to be, but imagine what it’s like having the entire Internet tell you that. To have headlines written about your wrinkles.

That is why I didn’t post my pointless Instagram and that is also why, I’m purposefully no including any pictures of Ryan to analyse here.

My pet peeve is when publishing titles do that on their Instagram feeds. They repost a celebrities picture. The same one that everyone has been criticising, but it’s okay because they are posting it ‘in defence’ of the person.

Except, they’re not, they just want the engagement but have to put a positive spin on it. Even though they know everyone in the comments is going to continue to tear them apart.

A Substack for another day perhaps…

Forgive me, Ryan and congratulations for the performance of a lifetime.

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Apologies for the lack of posts on Monday and Tuesday. Feeble excuse but I’ve got a cold and I normally write these in the evening, but I’ve been going to bed at about 9pm, which is unheard of for me.