The Transformation Of Ryan Gosling From 12 To 40 Years Old

Ryan Gosling has stolen the hearts of America — and the world. With his sweet face, killer body, and incredible acting skills, the Canadian-born actor can do no wrong in the eyes of audiences everywhere.

His charisma and good looks have consistently kept his name alive in entertainment and celebrity circles, while his natural talent has kept his agenda busy. In addition to being a major heartthrob, Gosling, who turned 40 on Nov. 12, 2020, has some rather impressive accolades under his belt. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor early on in his career for embodying a teacher suffering from drug addiction in the 2006 film Half Nelson. He was again nominated for the massively popular 2016 musical La La Land, which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

Having started his career as a child actor in the early 1990s, Gosling has spent his entire life in the public eye. Keep scrolling to check out how much he has transformed right before our eyes throughout his decades-long career. 

Ryan Gosling showed the world that he was made for success when he was only a child. At age 12, in 1993, he beat out thousands of aspiring actors after auditioning in his native Canada for a part on Disney Channel's The Mickey Mouse Club, according to a 2018 interview with CBC. Stating that he landed the role mainly thanks to "luck," Gosling has also proven he has remained humble over the years, as the report pointed out.  

Starring alongside other future household names that grew up on the spotlight — including Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera — Gosling described the two years he spent in The Club as his happiest, according to Stylectory. He has also joked about being a bad influence on his fellow actors. In a 2007 interview with The Guardian, he said that he used to talk to them about sex, which reportedly led their mothers to complain to Disney.

"I just told them what I heard — like positions and stuff," Gosling said. "Teaching Britney Spears about sex: Now there's an achievement! I feel somewhat responsible for how sexual she is now. When I see her with a snake around her neck, I think: Did I do that?"

After enjoying success as a child actor, Ryan Gosling kicked off another chapter in his career when he starred in a series of independent films. At the age of 21 in 2002, he appeared on the big screen next to Sandra Bullock — whom he went on to date for a year at the time — in the psychological thriller Murder by Numbers, and also The Slaughterhouse, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. A year later, he once again captivated the audience with his portrayal of a young inmate in The United States of Leland.

While his early films received mixed reviews, Gosling's performances and acting skills were already widely recognized. In his review of The Slaughterhouse, The New York Times' critic Stephen Holden characterized Gosling's acting as "riveting." Similarly, despite the many negative reviews The United States of Leland received, Gosling was praised for his acting skills.

"Ryan Gosling, a gifted actor, does everything that can be done with Leland, but the character comes from a writer's conceits, not from life," critic Roger Ebert wrote in 2004. Impressive!

Hardcore fans of Ryan Gosling were probably  not surprised when it was announced he was set to play a jazz musician in the 2016 musical La La Land. After all, the actor has aways showed an interest in music and even leads a musical career on the side.

As a Mickey Mouse Club alum, Gosling is no stranger to singing in front of the cameras. But follwing his time as a Mouseketeer, he dedicated most of his time and effort to his acting career. However, he took a break from acting between 2007, after starring in Lars and the Real Girl, and 2010, with Blue Valentine, during which he delved into the musical world, as CBC has pointed out.

In 2007, Gosling and his friend Zach Shields formed the indie band Dead Man's Bones. Two years later, they released an album by the same name, a collaboration with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea's Silverlake Conservatory Children's Choir, via W Magazine. Dead Man's Bones remains active, though the band had only one tour, according to the outlet.

In 2004, Ryan Gosling shot to superstardom when he landed the lead role in the wartime romance The Notebook, alongside fellow Canadian Rachel McAdams. 

The couple stole hearts on- and off-screen. In 2005, Gosling and McAdams started dating, a romance that took many by surprise. While it made perfect sense in the eyes of viewers given the incredible chemistry between Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton, the actors behind the characters apparently had a difficult relationship on set. In fact, Gosling went as far as to request a stand-in because McAdams was reportedly "so uncooperative he couldn't bear to look at her," according to a 2007 report by The Guardian.

Per The Guardian, one of those who was shocked when Gosling and McAdams first went public with their relationship was none other than The Notebook's director, Nick Cassavetes. "They hated each other. And now they're dating?" Cassavetes was quoted as saying.

Gosling and McAdams dated between 2005 and 2007, briefly reuniting in 2008 when they broke up for good — a split that shattered the hearts of fans of the couple immortalized by The Notebook. According to People, Gosling even had to console fans. "Women are mad at me," Gosling said, per the People report. "A girl came up to me on the street and she almost smacked me. Like, 'How could you? How could you let a girl like that go?'"

In September 2014, at age 33, Ryan Gosling started a family when he and actor Eva Mendes welcomed a baby girl named Esmeralda Amanda. As US Weekly reported at the time, the couple managed to keep Mendes's pregnancy under wraps despite the rumors. In a February 2014 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, when Mendes was likely several weeks pregnant, she vehemently denied the reports. Qualifying the rumors as "ridiculous," Mendes contended they began when she refused to go through scanners at an airport.

The event demonstrated the extent the actors are willing to go to keep their personal lives private. Gosling and Mendes got together in 2011, when they co-starred in the thriller The Place Beyond the Pines, released a year later. They have been going strong since then, welcoming a second daughter, Amanda Lee, in December 2016, People reported.

But their desire to keep their lives away from the limelight has not faded, as the pair is rarely seen together. In fact, Mendes and Gosling did not even make a public appearance together when he won his Golden Globe in 2017. In a 2020 Instagram post, Mendes replied to a follower who asked her to post a photo with Gosling, stating that, "My man and my kids are private. That's important to me so thanks for getting that," People noted. "Have a beautiful day. Sending so much love."