Ryan Gosling made Ken an official main character at Oscars 2024, performing “I'm Just Ken” to the crowd, complete with dozens of men, Slash, Mark Ronson, singalongs with Emma Stone, and so much more. Before the performance, anticipation was high. “It’s going to be a very big performance,” Academy Awards executive producer Raj Kapoor told Deadline. “You’ll see that. It is in rehearsal.
He made his way to the stage alongside Mark Ronson on guitar, before reuniting with the Barbie movie Kens: Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Scott Evans. Gosling broke wood with a karate chop, surfed into the air amid huge retro Barbie face cutouts, and sang his little heart out, even offering the mic to Margot Robbie, America Ferrera, and Greta Gerwig. Producer Mark Ronson recently talked about the hit as the song that almost wasn't even part of Barbie.