Would you believe the man whose fans protested because he didn't nab the 2011 honor of People's Sexiest Man Alive, was once cast in a film because the director didn't think he was very handsome?
Well it happened -- according to Ryan Gosling.
Us Weekly reports the 31-year-old actor told British magazine Company that 'The Notebook' director, Nick Cassavetes, helped take his ego down a few notches when he revealed why he cast him in the film's leading role.
"Nick Cassavetes called me to meet home at his house. When I got there, he was standing in his backyard, and he looked at me and said, "I want you to play this role because you're not like the other young actors out there in Hollywood. You're not handsome, you're not cool, you're just a regular guy who looks a bit nuts," recalled Gosling.
We find this story a bit hard to swallow, since he was offered the lead role in a studio-produced romance film, but it does explain other comments the actor has made regarding his looks.
In October, he told reporters, "I'm not that good looking. I think I'm a pretty weird-looking guy." He reasoned that, "Every role I got up until 'The Notebook' was the weirdo, freak, psychopath, nerd, outside character guy. I think things have changed."
We think his fans are inclined to agree that things have definitely changed.
The New York Daily News reports Gosling also opened up to Company about his childhood, telling the magazine, "I was a lonely child, I didn't do well at school and TV was my only friend."
The actor even admits he once had trouble ascertaining what was real and what was on screen:
"When I first saw 'Rambo,' that movie put a kind of spell on me and I actually thought I WAS Rambo -- So much so, that one day, I took a bunch of steak knives to school and threw them around at recess time because I thought we were in the movie!" he explained. "I'm not proud of this but I did learn a lesson -- I was suspended from school (and) my mother said I couldn't watch R-rated movies anymore."
That's quite a story, but Gosling recollections of his childhood have been a bit embellished before. His old pal Justin Timberlake ironed out some facts for Jimmy Fallon, about a story Gosling once told. For GQ's Men of the Year issue, Fallon asked Timberlake if Gosling really slept on his couch when he was a kid.
Timberlake replied, "So he tried to make it seem like he was bohemian even back then ... Ryan's mom had to stay back in Canada and my mom was his guardian for a year so he could come down and be on the [Micky Mouse Club]. But Gosling got his own bed. He didn't sleep on the couch."
Check out photos of Ryan through the years:
