The 15 best Ryan Gosling roles

This teen dramedy features a gangly, teenage Gosling in his first series-regular role after The Mickey Mouse Club. The actor starred on the Canadian show (which also aired on UPN as part of its weekday afternoon block) as nerdy, talkative Sean Hanlon. But despite his adolescent awkwardness, Gosling's inherent charm (and incredible '90s hair) gives the character a confident, natural energy that makes revisiting this Y2K throwback a delight.

Crazy, Stupid, Love features Gosling at perhaps his funniest, starring as Jacob Palmer, an almost-caricature of the worst-of-the-worst Cool Guy: an irredeemably conceited, chauvinistic playboy (with impeccable style) who forcibly teaches depressed, divorced dad Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) how to pick up women in an attempt to make his ex-wife (Julianne Moore) jealous. When smooth talker Jacob falls for fiery Hannah (Emma Stone), the Cool Guy persona fades ever so slightly, allowing for his vulnerable, silly side to shine through. Jacob is genuinely endearing when he lets his guard down, ultimately winning over Hannah — and any viewer with a pulse.

Just 27 years old at the film's release, Gosling could easily have been dwarfed by powerhouse costar Anthony Hopkins in this psychological crime thriller. Instead, the young actor's promising (yet underprepared) deputy attorney Willy Beachum — who is charged with prosecuting Hopkins' Ted Crawford for the attempted murder of his wife — proves a scrappy, wily, and worthy adversary. The dynamic, competitive rapport between Gosling and Hopkins drives Fracture, with the former's talent for injecting credible humor into the dramatic (as well as a sweet Southern twang) on full display.

It's also no surprise that La La Land nabbed Gosling his second Oscar nod — and not just because of his undeniable chemistry with three-time costar Emma Stone. Gosling spent months learning how to play the piano in order to authentically portray struggling jazz musician Sebastian. And even while singing and dancing, the actor brings a realistic humanity to his character. Hilarious and charming, Seb is impossible not to fall for, despite his complex and deeply rooted flaws. Gosling's performance encapsulates that kind of achy love you reserve for the people you want to hug and shake by the shoulders at the same time.

Ewan McGregor headlines this thriller as psychiatrist Sam Foster, but it's Gosling who steals the show as Sam's increasingly hopeless patient, a college student named Henry who struggles with depression and paranoia. Diving into darker territory, Gosling grounds his performance as an unsettled, volatile man battling mental illness — even as the film veers into the surreal, with Sam unclear as to where he stops and Henry begins.

Sporting a dyed perm and brown eye contacts, Gosling is nearly unrecognizable in The Big Short as insufferable banker Jared Vennett. Condescending, elitist, racist, sexist, and with no obvious redeeming qualities, the complete one-dimensionality of the character is a far cry from Gosling's typically highly nuanced roles; it is perhaps his only unredeemable character on this list. The fun Gosling has playing Vennett is conspicuous, which enhances the caricaturish qualities of the role — his ability to make audiences loathe and laugh at him is just as impressive as his ability to make them swoon and cry.

This action-comedy presents a delightful, lesser-seen iteration of Gosling: the bumbling goofball. Set in the 1970s, The Nice Guys stars Gosling as down-on-his-luck private eye Holland March, who reluctantly teams up with an enforcer (Russell Crowe) to search for a missing girl and look into the mysterious death of an adult film star. Gosling's March is completely unprepared in almost every scenario — constantly stumbling into harm's way, and literally getting caught with his pants down. After seeing so much cool from Gosling in other projects, it's a joy to watch him lean heavily into physical comedy and the endearing plight of someone who seems utterly incapable of tact, balance, and common sense.

As Luke Glanton, a motorcycle stunt rider who begins robbing banks to support his lover and their baby, Gosling is supremely watchable — simultaneously dry and magnetic, menacing and gentle, silent and deafeningly loud. With insuppressible criminal tendencies, and growing more and more frantic to provide for his young son, The Place Beyond the Pines' Luke throws himself headfirst into catastrophe. Though he's impressive when scheming and pleading, Luke engages in long bouts of sullen wordlessness, wherein Gosling does worlds of emotional work with just a glance, making it hard to look anywhere but at him. Amid a stacked cast (Bradley Cooper, Mahershala Ali, Ben Mendelsohn, the late Ray Liotta, and Gosling's real-life partner Eva Mendes), Gosling's ability to pull empathy from his audience is maybe at its strongest in this film.