Hollywood's Handsomest, Wittiest, Song - And - Danciest , Leading Man

Ryan Gosling is already timeless. He can go away for a while, do some art-movie adventuring and some enthusiastic kid-having with Eva Mendes, then waltz right back into his gig as Hollywood’s leading leading man. He’ll probably do it all again in five years – waltz off, waltz back, slay, repeat. But he was at the Oscars last year (and the year before that), and this year he’s inheriting Blade Runner from Harrison Ford. Right here, right now – this is Ryan Gosling’s next peak. GQ’s Chris Heath travels to Budapest to witness it up close.

- Chris Heath

Deep beneath the old castle fortifications in Budapest, on a hill just west of the Banube, is a subterranean labyrinth that winds for several miles. at the very end of one twisting tunnel, a long walk from the surface, there is a chamber, and in its centre, barely visible through the smoke that fills the room, is a small crouching statue of a grotesque, winged demon perched above a flat rectangular tombstone. the tomb’s purported occupant is identified by a single chiselled word: DRACULA.

This is where Ryan gosling has chosen to meet.

NOTES ON THE EARLY LIFE OF RYAN GOSLING #1

HE HATED BEING A KID. He just didn’t like the way it felt, and he wanted it to be over.

“I just felt this sense of: I have a limited amount of time and, you know, I’ve got to get started. I also didn’t like the arbitrariness of control that people seemed to have over me.”

I think most kids don’t know to question that. They just accept it.

“I think my mother encouraged that. I had one teacher, because I was dancing, he thought that was funny and he would make jokes about it in class, and my mother said, ‘You know, if ever you feel like he’s being disrespectful, you can just leave.’ And I did one day. I called her and said, ‘Hey, I left.’ Also, when I was home schooled for a year, I saw my curriculum come in the mail and I saw that it was just this tangible stack of books – I guess I realized that there were other ways to do it. The fact that I could stay home and watch Planet Of The Apes in the morning and then go downstairs and draw while I learned about some historical battle – draw these maps and scenarios and connect to it in a way that was personal to me – I just felt like: Oh well, then there must be another way to do everything.”