Ryan Gosling‘s first interaction with Burt Reynolds in the late 1990s was not exactly how he expected it to go.
During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Wednesday, the “Barbie” star — who is currently promoting his new film “The Fall Guy” — opened up about his experience working with Reynolds on the 1996 movie “Frankenstein and Me” and revealed the “odd” piece of advice the legend gave him.
“He was like, ‘Let me tell you something, kid, Don’t spend your whole life stepping over diamonds to live with a cubic zirconia,'” Gosling said. “I was like, ‘I’m 13. I don’t know what any of those things are. I don’t know what any of that is. Stop looking at my mom. I’m right here.'”
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Ryan Gosling appeared alongside Burt Reynolds in his first feature film. (Ruby Wallau/Getty Images)
When host Jimmy Kimmel asked Gosling if he got to spend a lot of time with Reynolds, the actor expanded on the comment about his mother.
“It’s complicated,” Gosling admitted. “Because I thought he took a shine to me. I thought he thought there was something special about me. And then I realized that I have a really beautiful mom.”
“He was just kind of interested,” he added of the late actor’s interest in his mom, Donna, at the time. “It was like I was getting, like, a secondary shine. The real shine was for my mom. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is secondary shine.’”
Ryan Gosling said Burt Reynolds, right, had a crush on his mother when they worked together. (Getty Images)
“How long did it take you to figure that out?” Kimmel questioned?
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“I wish I had found out sooner,” he responded. “She loved it. Nothing happened.”
“You could have been Ryan Reynolds on the acting scene had that worked out!” Kimmel joked.
Ryan Gosling worked with Burt Reynolds when he was a teenager. (Christopher Polk/WWD via Getty Images)
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As far as life goes, Gosling seems to have his priorities in check.
During a recent interview for the Men’s Health May/June 2024 issue, the actor shared that when he thinks about what will be important to him in the future, he thinks “about what’s going to matter to me on my deathbed.” Gosling admitted that “it always comes back to family first.”
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes met in 2011 while on set of “The Place Beyond the Pines.” (Emily Shur, Men’s Health | Alexander Tamargo/FilmMagic)
“I don’t think I’ll regret anything professionally, but I do think when it comes to Eva [Mendes] and the girls, they come first. I don’t know, it’s probably not a good thing that I go ‘deathbed,’ but it’s helpful for me,” he explained, adding that “It puts things into perspective.”
It is unclear if the couple have ever tied the knot, but over the course of their 13-year relationship, they have welcomed two daughters, Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7.
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“The Fall Guy” is set to bow in theaters Friday.
Fox News Digital’s Lori Bashian contributed to this report.
Christina Dugan Ramirez is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital.
