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Canadian actor Ryan Gosling (C) performs “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie” onstage during the 96th annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, on March 10, 2024.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Even though she had a ticket to sit in the Oscars audience, choreographer Mandy Moore, who directed Sunday’s spectacular “I’m Just Ken” number, couldn’t help but stand backstage and give all the Kens a pep talk. her before going on stage.
“It was a big buzz,” Moore said of the energy backstage.
He high performance saw Barbie Movie star and Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling, wearing a bright pink suit and cowboy hat, leads an army of 62 Kens, as well as his companions. Barbie film Kens – Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Scott Evans – in an all-out dance number that paid tribute to Gentlemen prefer blondesincluded “street style dancing,” filled the stage with Barbie cardboard cutouts and ended with a Rockettes-style line.
On stage, Gosling was joined by “I’m Just Ken” songwriters and producers Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, as well as guitarist Wolfgang Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, who played a solo. in the end.
The goal, Moore says, was to make the audience and the television broadcast feel like they were at a rock concert with a stage full of “hundreds of Kens.” (The team settled on 62 after discovering that 100 didn’t actually fit on the stage.)
The dancers only had about a week of rehearsal and a full tryout, said Moore, a So, you think you can dance choreographer who worked with Gosling on The The Earth and with Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour. Many of the creative ideas originated with Gosling and director Greta Gerwig, including the decision to reference the Marilyn Monroe film, and Gosling talked about including his co-stars and cameraman in the performance.
Moore spoke with The Hollywood Reporter a day after the Oscars about how the number that brought the Academy to its feet was achieved.
While this had been in talks for a while, you said you only got the green light to do the number about two weeks ago. What was the rehearsal process like?
It was fast and furious, 100 percent. I started rehearsals with the Kens, the dancers, last Sunday, and the week before that Ryan had been doing some private voice and dance sessions to get his voice up to speed and then also his body to move and continue talking. the overall structure with him, because he was so involved creatively, a lot of it came out of his head and his conversations with Greta, Mark and Andrew. So my job was just to make sure that we could make all of this happen, and get it going with all the people and just make the vision come true.
Were you able to rehearse the whole number beforehand then?
We ended up doing the rehearsal process in levels. So rehearsing with Ryan before the dancers understand structure, flow and creativity. And then at my first rehearsal with Ryan and the dancers, I had 20 dancers, basically those guys who started with him on the stairs, and the guys who like to lift him up and the Kendelabra guy, we call him Kendelabra guy, not candelabra, who fist bumps at the beginning. And then Ryan left for a couple of days because he already had some things pre-planned and I continued working with more dancers. And then, on the day of the camera block, which was Friday, he brought in 24 other dancers to complete the rest of the picture. And then Ryan came back and was there for the camera blocking day, as well as Mark, Andrew and Wolfgang. That Thursday, I was also able to meet up with Simu, Kingsley and Scott and so I taught them some movement, but Ncuti didn’t arrive until Friday, so he learned it on Friday. And then Slash didn’t arrive until yesterday morning. So we did a test yesterday, mid-morning, with everyone finally there, and then we got going.
So you just did a full analysis?
Yes. Many times the live works like that, especially when you work with people of this stature. They’re A stars. They have crazy schedules, they’re on tour. I’m also very used to that live, so I just have to create the number so that I can reach people very quickly.
How did you think about transferring this number from the screen to the awards ceremony?
The good thing is that we were moving away from the movie scene. Ryan (and Greta) were obviously inspired by Gentlemen prefer blondes “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” moment, because that image is very strong, him in a pink suit and the rest of the boys in black and then, giving it a little adjustment with the cowboy hats and instead of candelabra women, with the Kendelabras and the ladder. The image is a great tribute to something so iconic.
And then in this new version with all these men and this different style, I wanted the language of the movement to be different too, because in the movie they are fighting during the song, but there is also the dream ballet. So we really took a 180 degree turn and went for a much more street style, rough, a little bit naughty, with some social dance steps.
Letting the Kens be like rock stars was also a big deal. Greta, in our initial Zooms, had just said, my only dream for this is that everyone is up and singing at the end, so you have to create a performance that allows people to do that. And Simu made a video right before, at the commercial break, and told everyone that it’s okay to get up and use your phones like you’re at a rock concert.
It seems like the audience in the theater had a great response.
It was chaos. Ryan was so nervous that he said, “Will no one stand up?” and I’m like,
“Ryan, you will stand up. Everything will be fine”. But that’s a real thing, you get very nervous when you’re putting something like this together, where you’re basically doing a rock concert, and if people didn’t get up, the whole thing would fail.
They began to stand up almost immediately. And I love that shot of Billie Eilish and Margot laughing at the beginning, because it also let everyone understand that it’s okay to have fun and let loose a little. It’s serious because it’s really good, but you’re just having a little fun with “I’m Just Ken.” It’s a big change for Ryan, and I’m very impressed and have a lot of respect for him, because it’s a big deal to have to perform like that in front of your teammates.
Whose decision was it to include Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, America Ferrera and Emma Stone in the issue?
It was definitely me and Ryan. We looked at the Oscar seating plot and the producers, but Ryan really spearheaded that, he said, “I really want to make sure I have Margot in front of me, and Greta, and America.” And then when we saw the seating arrangement, I thought, “Emma’s there. Why don’t you go to those three first?” because he said, “I just need to pay these women my respects. They are surprising. And they’re the only reason I’m here” – and then I said, “Why don’t you do the second one for Emma?” She is there. She would be a good Easter egg for everyone. You have done so many films with her.”
How about Ryan’s decision to hold the cameraman’s hand at the end?
We were in rehearsal. And, you know, he said, “Okay, then I’m going to jump.” “We’ll go to Greta, Margot, America and then I’ll go here with Emma.” And he said, “I think I should hold the cameraman’s hand and we should see him because he’s a Ken too” and I said, “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” And he says, “I’ll take it to the stage. And then he will be a part of it and he will be able to photograph our last selfie moment.” I said, “Yes, please,” because then you’re breaking the fourth wall. You’re using the cameraman as an audience, right? Like you’re drawing the audience in and up. And that was also an important role for Ryan. He just wanted to feel like he was inviting all of his friends to the party. And I thought it was a very inspiring moment. He says, “I’m going to kiss your hand. Can you make sure he is calm if he kisses his hand? I said, “Yeah, I’ll make sure he’s okay.” And he was very cool.
It sounds like you also got a lot of input from the entire film crew.
Yes, Mark, Ryan, Andrew and the Oscar team. That’s what I think is so interesting about the Oscars: it’s these different teams coming together to celebrate this movie, but for a television broadcast. It’s a really interesting collaboration when it goes well. I think it’s a really cool thing, because there are a lot of very creative people coming together to create something. And there’s a kind of strange passing of the baton, where you take the baton from the people who made the movie, including Jennifer White, who was the original choreographer. She did something for the movie that was definitely the basis for what we did and what we staged for the Oscars. Without those characters and those bodies moving like they did in the movie, we wouldn’t have what we had last night at the Oscars.