This March 10, 2013 photo shows Canadian actor Ryan Gosling poses for a portrait in New York. Gosling plays a tattooed motorbike rider in a traveling circus in his latest film,The Place Beyond the Pines.Victoria Will/The Associated Press
Is Ryan Gosling really going to quit acting or just drumming up interest in his new movies?
The Canadian actor has people talking following an interview in which he offhandedly hinted that he was planning on taking a hiatus from acting.
"I've been doing it too much," said Gosling in an interview with The Associated Press this week." I've lost perspective on what I'm doing. I think it's good for me to take a break and reassess why I'm doing it and how I'm doing it. And I think this is probably a good way to learn about that."
The interview was in promotion of Gosling's upcoming film The Place Beyond the Pines, which arrives in theatres next Friday. His next movie, the action feature Only God Forgives, opens May 23.
Born in London, Ontario, Gosling, 32, has been in the spotlight since he was eight years old, when he was a cast member of Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club. He subsequently starred in the kids series Are You Afraid of the Dark and Breaker High before landing his first serious acting role as a Jewish neo-Nazi in the 2001 film The Believer.
Gosling's ascension to Hollywood A-lister came with his lead role in the 2004 romantic drama The Notebook. He earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a social misfit in the 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl.
More recently, Gosling has been top-billed in the features Gangster Squad and Drive, both very profitable films for the studio that made them.
In the same interview this week, Gosling was quoted as saying, "I need a break from myself as much as I imagine the audience does," but is he really going to walk away from a career that he's worked toward since childhood and now pays him upward of $10-million (U.S.) per film?
Don't hold your breath.