The Truth About Ryan Gosling And Justin Timberlake's Friendship

Ryan Gosling is a bona fide movie star who is well-known for his big screen roles in movies like Drive, La La Land, The Big Short, The Notebook, and more. Meanwhile, Justin Timberlake is no slouch either. He has sold millions of hit records both as a member of the boy band NSYNC and as a solo artist before also venturing into moviedom with roles in The Social Network and Friends With Benefits. Before their respective successes, however, Gosling and Timberlake both got their starts starring together in The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s.

In addition to Gosling and Timberlake, the Disney Channel series also featured an entire cast of before-they-were-famous stars like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Keri Russell, JC Chasez, and more. Gosling and Timberlake weren't just co-stars, though — they actually became good friends on the set of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club. Read on for more details about their friendship during their younger years.

According to a 2011 interview with Justin Timberlake on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (via Us Weekly), Timberlake and The All-New Mickey Mouse Club co-star Ryan Gosling were mischievous friends on the set of the early 1990s series. They were young kids then and they made their own fun on a Hollywood studio lot, where many workers use golf carts to get around. So, at one point, Gosling and Timberlake stole one together.

"We were like, 'Yeah, man. We're stealing a golf cart!'" Timberlake recalled to DeGeneres. "We [also] drove into MGM Studios, which is totally illegal by the way."

Even as they were teenage boys getting into mischief with each other, they were also becoming good friends who could be there for each other. Gosling and Timberlake grew so close, in fact, that they became almost like family to each other in a major way.

During his 2011 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Justin Timberlake revealed that his mother, Lynn Harless, became Ryan Gosling's legal guardian for six months — making The All-New Mickey Mouse Club co-stars pretty much family in the early 1990s.

Gosling's family is Canadian and during their second season on the Disney Channel show, his mother needed to go back for her job in the Great White North. So, Harless became Gosling's legal guardian while he stayed in the U.S. to work on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club and he lived with Timberlake's family. Timberlake told DeGeneres (via Us Weekly), "We were probably a little closer than the rest of the kids that were on the show just because we had to share a bathroom."

Sadly, it doesn't sound like the music superstar and the Oscar-nominated are as close as they once were. Timberlake told DeGeneres in 2011 that it was "hard to keep up with" Gosling's acting career. Then, in 2013, Gosling told America Reads Spanish that he hasn't kept in touch with Timberlake. "I see him around but it's like anything where you're friends with somebody in elementary school or something, how many friends do you still have from elementary school?"

Since those interviews, the duo did reunite during the 2017 Oscars ceremony, according to EW, in a moment that was captured by photographers. Even if they have drifted apart a bit since their youth, it seems like the two still get along just fine.