“I even thought my face felt like Sylvester Stallone’s”: Ryan Gosling Got into Serious Trouble After Stallone’s $125 Million Movie Hypnotized Him So Much That He Was Banned From Watching Action Movies

SUMMARY

• Ryan Gosling was deeply influenced by Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo as a child and even considered him the hero.
• Taking his wild imagination to his school, Gosling reenacted Rambo’s knife-throwing skills at school, leading to suspension.
• Gosling's parents banned him from watching R-rated movies, switching him to Bible films and National Geographic.

Show More▼

Imagine a young Ryan Gosling, brimming with boundless energy and a newly discovered admiration for Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo. Apparently, our Hollywood heartthrob, famously known for Barbie and The Notebook, had initially cultivated a penchant for action flicks after watching Stallone’s $125M movie. But what he did next was clearly unexpected for a gentleman like him. 

Ryan Gosling in Barbie (2023) | image: Warner Bros.

With the enthusiasm of a kid who had just discovered his superpower, Ryan Gosling had decided to take his love for Rambo a tad too literally. Instead of just imagining himself as the hero, he channeled his inner Sylvester Stallone during recess, armed with steak knives and an overactive imagination. What followed was a spectacle worthy of its own blockbuster, and clearly a lesson on why you shouldn’t mix movies with reality.

Ryan Gosling Mixed His Rambo Fantasies with Schoolyard Shenanigans 

In a tale that’s part action epic, part life-threatening, and entirely unexpected, Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Gosling recounted his formative years with an anecdote that could rival the plot twists of his own films. During his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, recalled a story from his childhood years when he first watched Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo and got hypnotized by it.

According to Ryan Gosling, after watching Sylvester Stallone’s $125M movie (via The Numbers) with eyes wide and imagination running wild, the actor had apparently taken his admiration for the film to the next level. Instead of merely appreciating Stallone’s performance and the storyline filled with action sequences, Gosling was so immersed in the Rambo fantasy that he began to see himself as the ultimate action hero.

Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: First Blood | image: Lionsgate

Ok, so like when I was a kid I saw Rambo: First Blood. And then the movie put a spell on me, and I thought I was Rambo. I even thought my face felt like Sylvester Stallone’s. And then I put a bunch of steak knives in my fisher-price Houdini kit. I took it to school the next day and I threw them at all the kids at recess. 

Turning the playground into a war zone and the school kids into his enemy soldiers, Ryan Gosling apparently tried enacting his own version of Rambo’s signature knife-throwing scenes during recess. Well, that was truly unexpected of someone so docile and gentle as Gosling. But care to know what followed next? 

Ryan Gosling was Banned from Watching Action Flicks After Sylvester Stallone’s Movie

Well, apparently, after trying to embody Sylvester Stallone‘s character at school during recess and channeling his inner Rambo through knife-throwing skills, Ryan Gosling was suspended from school. Thankfully, being bad at aim, the actor managed to spare the kids’ lives at his school. Thereafter, followed by scolding from his mother, Gosling also witnessed a newfound restriction on his movie-watching habits.

Realizing how badly those action flicks impacted Ryan Gosling’s psyche at a tender age, the actor’s parents banned him from watching any more high-octane movies, let alone Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo sequels. Recounting this incident, the Barbie actor later admitted to being ashamed of his behavior while adding a joke to ease out the grave situation of how he almost stabbed kids at school after watching Rambo. 

I got suspended and I didn’t hit anybody. So that’s… you know I’m sorry and I don’t think it’s cool, but my parents were like ‘this guy can’t watch movies you know. They have too much of an effect on him’. So I could only watch bible movies and National Geographic movies. So then the next week I came to school and I hit a kid in the neck with a blow dart. That’s not true. That’s a joke. 

Ryan Gosling in a still from Blade Runner 2049 | image: Warner Bros.

Eventually, the incident became a memorable chapter in Ryan Gosling’s childhood. And for audiences, his story served as a humorous reminder of the impact movies can have, and how even the brightest stars have their share of youthful misadventures. Meanwhile, fast-forward to recent times, Gosling has transitioned from a pint-sized Rambo to a Hollywood leading man, wherein he even made headlines for being eyed by Sylvester Stallone to play the next Rambo. 

Rambo movies are currently available to watch on Prime Video.

Written by Krittika Mukherjee

Articles Published: 1880

Krittika is a News Writer at FandomWire with 2 years of prior experience in lifestyle and web content writing. With her previous works available on HubPages and Medium, she has woven over 1700 stories with us, about fan-favorite actors, movies, and shows. Post-graduate in Journalism and Honors-graduate in English Literature, when this art enthusiast isn't crafting your next favorite article, she finds her escapism in coffee, fiction, and the Wizarding World.