How did Ryan Gosling say no to being a superhero and turning down roles that paid so much

Ryan Gosling doesn't take Halloween family photos. He's a Hollywood geek who keeps his private life extremely private; All we can confirm from the gossip press is that he is still happily living with Eva Mendes and their two daughters. It's hard to imagine Gosling, at just 42 years old, remaining independent in the Hollywood dyeing house, but the truth is, it's clear from the big movie roles he's passed up -- he's got the acting chops and the looks to refuse to let himself be a superstar. Are you ready? Take a look at how Gosling turned down Hollywood as a whole, and it's a long, long, long list.

1. Refuse to be a domineering CEO

As Anna watches Gray working out, his back muscles squeezing a magnificent mountain peak, she gives a satisfied smile. The audience would have been more satisfied than Anna, given that Gosling might once have been the domineering CEO in Fifty Shades of Grey. In the series of books and movies, Gray is a 27-year-old billionaire who enjoys a bit of unusual bondage and whipping of SM in the lives of ordinary billionaires.

And when the movie adaptation of the novel was ready to go into action, who was the only person the cast had in mind for Gray? Ryan Gosling: He's got a mysterious melancholy streak (presumably hiding his bizarre sexual tendencies), and he's got Steve Carell's verified six-pack in Crazy, Stupid Love, so he's certainly a sex god.

Unfortunately (and we'll hear more about these words later), Gosling turned down the offer of a show without showing interest, and you're missing a fantasy CEO.

2. Refuse to be Batman

As we told you before, the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con was the most exciting moment in the DC universe when director Zach Schneider confirmed that there would be a new Justice League, and that the Batman in it would not be Bruce Wayne from Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, but a new Batman. At the time, the nation's most desired bet was Ryan Gosling.

This is not a result of nagging questions, as even the Hollywood Reporter, director Kevin Smith and other sources have pointed out that Warner did have Gosling in mind as the Dark Knight. But Gosling still turned it down because he didn't want to sign multiple film deals -- Warner Studios wouldn't let Batman retire without making a trilogy once he showed up as a family heirloom. This was against Gosling's working principle. Not only did he not want to do so many films in a row, he didn't want to be tied down for years, and he wasn't even interested in sequels.

In 2018, while promoting "First Man on the Moon," a Variety reporter suddenly asked Gosling a nonsense question:

"Would you want to be Batman?"

And that makes Gosling suddenly look like a scolded schoolboy, hesitating, as if being forced to do a job he doesn't want to do:

"Oh you know, I don't know, it depends on Damien? Do you want to make a Batman movie? If so, I'm kind of interested, Damien Chazelle's version of Batman, that's something I'd be interested in doing."

Why are you asking him that?! He already said no! It's heartbreaking to be asked what to do about Gosling. Please, there's a bunch of actors vying to be Bruce Wayne. Leave him alone!

3. Refusing to be Green Lantern, The Joker, or Doctor Strange

"Plural movie contracts" became a no-no for Gosling, so the three characters could talk together because Gosling gave up for the same reason. First for 2011's Green Lantern, Warner agreed to a meeting with Gosling to work out contract details, but Gosling balked at a deal for the Green Lantern trilogy (or more). Of course, we know that the subsequent production of Green Lantern was chaotic, and Ryan Reynolds was never asked to honor the rest of his movie deal. What can I say? Is Gosling lucky he got away with it?

In 2014, it was widely rumored that Joaquin Phoenix would star in Marvel's Doctor Strange, but the personality actor finally passed on the chance, and then Gosling showed up, had several meetings with Marvel Studios execs, and seemed likely to become the new Doctor Strange. Is he abandoning his policy of not making sequels? As it turns out, he still passed on the chance to enter the Marvel Universe.

In fact, 2014 has been a busy year for Gosling, as several projects have hit him at the same time, including a Houdini adventure movie (Houdini wasn't just a magician, he was actually a psychic detective), and the dark comedy The Tear Detective, which has already been booked. Detective Tear will be released just a month apart from Doctor Strange in summer 2016, forcing Gosling to choose one movie over the other. But not only that, the DC Universe has also reached out to Gosling -- in 2014, Warner Pictures implored Gosling to play the Joker in Suicide Squad.

Aside from the Houdini ghost movie, which is still in the works, what's the difference between Doctor Strange, Detective Tear, and Suicide Squad? For Gosling, these three films can be divided into two categories: "only one film" and "many sequels", and he finally chose to not make a sequel "Tear Detective", passing up the chance to become Marvel's Doctor Strange and DC Joker.

4. Almost being the Expendables

Look at the people Gosling has turned down: old Hollywood royalty Warner Pictures (twice) and new Hollywood royalty Marvel Studios. Now it's time to add one of Hollywood's biggest names: SONY Pictures.

In 2014, SONY Pictures' internal secrets were ruthlessly revealed once again when hackers leaked emails from executives, internal financial records and even digital film archives of unreleased films. Among them, Paul Feig's plans for a reboot of The Expendables have also been revealed. A female version of the Expendables, Feig will follow in the footsteps of his success with Bridesmaids and The Heat, and is expected to star Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence in the new Expendables.

In 2016, we saw Feig's female version of Ghero, starring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, which was clearly a far cry from Stone and Lawrence's version. And it looks like Gosling was originally supposed to play the same character in The Expendables, and now we're seeing Chris Hemsworth in the film as Eye Candy, which should make for some big laughs. Even better, it will be the first time Stone and Gosling have been reunited on film.

Gosling chatted with then-Sony Pictures President Amy PASCAL, and it seemed he was on the verge of becoming Expendables' eye candy. The problem is, the trophy clown is really only a small part, and SONY Pictures had a hard time getting Gosling in the frame, so they certainly didn't want to let him go.

5. Almost being Spider-Man

SONY Pictures' heirloom, of course, is Spider-Man. The problem is, they were very unhappy with 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which saw Andrew Garfield dumped by SONY. SONY, of course, couldn't just give up on the Spider-Man movie, so they settled on a strategy of "surrounding the main character with villains" -- introducing Spider-Man's Nemesis to the audience and then bringing him back. One of SONY's plans at the time was the Wicked Six. SONY's spider universe strategy is still in that direction, as you can see from Venom, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Doctor Night: Mobias.

But what's different is that SONY was originally expected to introduce viewers to a more mature youth version of Spider-Man, not a social fresher out of high school like Andrew Garfield, but a bit older and more sophisticated - in a way that's similar to the way the DC universe "aged" Bruce Wayne back then. The mature Peter Parker will be back in the Wicked Six: Ryan Gosling. Interestingly, Gosling is actually only three years older than Andrew Garfield. In fact, these two male stars are a bit of a baby face

Amy PASCAL's hacked email clearly read:

"I'm going to talk to [Gosling] about The Wicked Six and Steve Jobs."

Interestingly, Gosling's on-screen Pal Emma Stone was the first to turn down the Expendables, saying she didn't want to be tied to a franchise and needed more time to think about joining it again (she's already appeared in two Amazing Spider-Man films). And instead of acting in blockbuster movies, if she got the chance, she wanted to try her hand at villains that A-list actresses might not necessarily be interested in -- and years later, Cruella fulfilled that.

All in all, Paul Feig's Expendables project had to be revised, its budget scaled back, and Gosling left the project and even Spider-Universe and SONY Pictures. PASCAL was subsequently ousted due to the hacking incident, and Tom Holland became the youngest Spider-Man in history. Gosling and Stone had an even bigger romance in 2016's La La Land, a small independent film that earned Gosling Oscar and Bafta nominations for best actor and a Golden Globe for best actor. The film, which cost $30 million, went on to gross a whopping $440 million worldwide.

From the above, we can see that Gosling doesn't really hate acting in mainstream Hollywood movies, he just doesn't want to be tied to multiple movie contracts, and even then, he doesn't completely reject the possibility (such as his talks with Marvel or SONY Pictures). And perhaps because of other reasons or fate, he seems to be permanently in parallel with mainstream Hollywood.

We know that the Marvel Universe has a history of signing actors to long-term deals, but that's not always the case. Would Joaquin Phoenix play the Joker again? No one knows for sure, but maybe the studio could consider Gosling for the lead in a solo hero movie, and he might say yes -- remember, his daughter is growing up, too, and the younger one might expect her dad to put on a cape and fly.

On the other hand, Gosling doesn't seem to need to rely on the mainstream. He's still thriving in the independent film industry, and Hollywood continues to refuse any opportunities to recruit him. Perhaps his long refusal strategy is the reason why Hollywood can't stop thinking about him.