Crazy,Stupid and a Star

“It’s really the same for everyone,’’ the 30-year-old Canadian actor adds. ‘’If you listen to other people in life,you really wouldn’t ever do anything. You’d be too afraid to try.’’

Unknown until The Notebook (2004),today he’s an A-list actor with three major 2011 releases Crazy,Stupid,Love,the current thriller Drive and the political drama The Ides of March—with some Oscar buzz attending the last-named.

“It’s great that people are liking what I’m doing,’’ Gosling says. “But it’s risky to believe what other people are saying about you. What I believe in is the people who had a belief in me when I was starting out. I’ll never forget who believed in me when nobody else did.’’

The Ides of March casts Gosling as Stephen Myers,the communications director for a presidential candidate played by George Clooney,who also directed the film. Myers starts out as an idealist but it doesn’t take long for him to realise the reality of politics. “I play someone who really wants to effect change in this country and in the world,’’ the actor says. “He ends up working for a candidate who can effect policy and change,but it’s a big dilemma for him to figure out what to do when he finds out some interesting facts about his candidate. It’s a morality tale.’’

He praises Clooney as a director. “It’s actually rare to work with a director who is as clear as George Clooney and really knows what he wants,’’ Gosling says. “He knew this film inside and out. When the cameras rolled,he would give you this incredible direction,’’ Gosling says.

“George is not just about making a good film,’’ Gosling says. “It’s about having a great experience making it.’’

Drive is still likely to be playing when Ides opens. In that thriller Gosling plays a mystery man known only as Driver,a loner who feels more at home in a car than anywhere else on earth. “He’s a getaway driver who does small heists as well as works as a stuntman for movies,’’ Gosling says. “And he happens to fall in love with the wrong woman.’’

That would be his married neighbour (Carey Mulligan),who is raising her young son while her husband is in jail. Eventually the husband is sprung from the slammer,and Myers decides to help the ex-con with a truly dangerous mission that predictably goes awry. “I wanted you to see what motivates this guy to make what are some really bad choices. I also wanted the film to be dreamlike,but with a dream that turns into a nightmare.’’

Initially seen as a scrawny youth with a quirky individuality,Gosling lately has sported lighter hair and a chiselled physique—his muscular torso figured prominently in one of the best gags in Crazy,Stupid,Love—and has been branded one of Hollywood’s newest hunks.

“I think I’m a pretty weird-looking guy. Every role I got,up until The Notebook,was the weirdo,freak,psychopath,nerd,outsider character guy. Things have changed.’’

Gosling is currently filming Ruben Fleischer’s The Gangster Squad,a period piece co-starring Sean Penn and Emma Stone and set in 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles. As for his personal life,Gosling dated his Notebook co-star Rachel McAdams for several years,and more recently has been linked to Eva Mendes,his co-star in the upcoming The Place Beyond the Pines. However,he doesn’t like to talk about his private life – except to divulge whom he sees as his soul mate.

“A dog whose name is George,’’ Gosling says fondly. “Eleven years. It’s the longest relationship I’ve ever had in my life.’’ CINDY PEARLMAN