For many Barbie fans, Ryan Gosling’s musical solo of “I’m Just Ken” was the highlight of the film.
In a new episode of Rolling Stone’s The Breakdown, producer Mark Ronson discusses the process of making the now-Oscar-nominated Ken solo from Barbie, including the specific instructions he received from director Greta Gerwig.
“I need the most maximalist thing you’ve ever written,” Ronson says Gerwig asked him. “That’s when we wrote the music for the Kenergy part, but we hadn’t written any words.”
Ronson tells the story of how the line “I’m Just Ken, anywhere else I’d be a 10” came to mind when he was walking to the studio one morning — and that was how the song was born, first as a 2.5-minute track, before it grew into the extended solo it became in the film.
Ronson says the song originated from the chorus as he played the stems of the single, sharing he “didn’t have the words” for some parts.
“I read the script, and I was just so in love with it. I thought it was the funniest thing. It was so warm… there were these stories of misunderstood people searching for their thing. I told Greta I’d do anything on this film,” Ronson says.
After the first demo of the track was complete, Ronson says he played it for Gerwig, who especially liked the line about “blonde fragility.” Ronson later sent the demo to Andrew Wyatt, who wrote the verse. But the pair of musicians had some writer’s block before they saw some “Gerwig ramblings” that inspired some lines in the song.
“There’s this idea he’s in the wrong place, not in the right time, and he’s not appreciated,” Ronson says, later adding, “We’re laughing, but we’re not laughing at these people. We’re laughing with them on this journey.”
Ronson says he even wrote some parts to the song, including guitar solos, as filler, but Gerwig ended up using it and asking for more for the dream ballet sequence.
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Ronson also wrote “Dance the Night,” performed by Dua Lipa, saying both projects came together pretty quickly because of the “good energy” in the studio.
“I’m Just Ken” is nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards. It already won the trophy for Best Song at the Critics’ Choice Awards and earned nominations at the Grammys and Golden Globes.