Ryan Gosling explains why he took four-year break from acting

Ryan Gosling has lifted the lid on why he decided to step back from acting for four years.

In 2017 he had been up for an Oscar for his role in the movie La La Land, but from 2018 Ryan Gosling didn't work on any projects until The Gray Man in 2022.

Now, he has revealed what his reason was for taking a four-year-long break from acting.

He had his breakout role in 2004 with The Notebook, and went on to work on a number of projects. Then, in 2014 he had his first daughter Esmeralda with Eva Mendes.

PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo/dpa picture alliance archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Then, in 2016, he and Mendes welcomed their second child Amada.

Since then, he took a pause to spend more time with his family.

He told GQ: "I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them."

The star also spoke about when he found out that he was going to be a dad, explaining: "I would never want to go back, you know? I'm glad I didn't have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself."

Despite throwing himself into being a dad, Gosling revealed he had kept his thoughts on parenthood guarded until he got the news.

Gosling and Mendes have two daughters together. PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo/dpa picture alliance archive / Alamy Stock Photo

He said: "I think I said, I didn't think about kids until she told me she was pregnant. That's not really true. I didn't want to overshare, but now I also don't want to misrepresent.

"I mean, it's true that I wasn't thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn't want to have kids without her.

"And there were moments on The Place Beyond the Pines where we were pretending to be a family, and I didn't really want it to be pretend anymore. I realized that this would be a life I would be really lucky to have."

Even now he's working again, Gosling deliberately limits himself to just one big project a year.

His family are also often there on set when he's working. Aside from that, they spend a lot of time at their home together, in a quiet neighbourhood a long way from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles.

Gosling will next be on our screens in Barbie, which hits cinemas on 21 July.

Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV

Kit Roberts

Kit joined UNILAD in 2023 as a community journalist. They have previously worked for StokeonTrentLive, the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Star.