Ryan Gosling Says His Daughters Hugely Impact Which Roles He Takes

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Ryan Gosling’s silly streak precedes his role as Ken, the goofy man-child to Barbie’s put-together professional in the Barbie movie. But alongside his more comedic roles, or his turns as the charming action hero, the 43-year-old hasn’t shied away from psychologically darker characters. In The Place Beyond the Pines—the 2012 drama where Gosling met his future wife, costar Eva Mendes—for example, the actor starred as a motorcycle stuntman who turned to a life of crime to support his family.

Nowadays, however, you’ll be less likely to find Gosling going to a “dark place” for a film. In an interview with WSJ magazine, the actor said he’s avoiding projects that might impact his mood at the end of the day.

“The decisions I make, I make them with Eva, and we make them with our family in mind first,” he said. The couple shares two daughters, Esmerelda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 8.

Gosling says he first began to notice how his daughters impacted his career choices when he signed on for La La Land, the 2016 musical in which he starred alongside Emma Stone. “It was sort of like, ‘oh, this will be fun for [my kids] too,’ because even though they’re not coming to set, we’re practicing piano every day or we’re dancing or we’re singing,” he said.

His daughters also had a few requests of their own when it came to his most recent project, The Fall Guy, in which he plays a stuntman. Speaking with People, the 43-year-old said that his daughters specifically asked him not to perform a stunt that required him to be set on fire. (Honestly, I’m with the girls on this one.)

“Even though I said, ‘Well, it’s actually, technically the safer thing to do because there’s a lot of protective stuff involved,’” Gosling said, referring to the safety precautions taken on film sets, like fire-resistant clothing and protective gel. His daughters didn’t buy it. “[They] were like, ‘No. No fire.’ So I didn’t do it,” he said.

If all of this means that we’ll be seeing Ryan Gosling in more silly, goofy roles like Ken, that’s absolutely fine with me. Maybe his daughters can convince him to take some more rom-coms too? I’m dying for a sequel to Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Originally Appeared on Glamour