Britney, Justin, Christina ... and Ryan? - NY Daily News                           


By NANCY MILLS


Ryan Gosling kills an autistic boy in 'The United States of Leland.' 

HOLLYWOOD - Ryan Gosling sang and danced on "The Mickey Mouse Club" alongside Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.
They kept singing and dancing and became pop superstars.

Gosling plays gloomy, alienated, homicidal, obsessive characters in little movies. 

But at 23, he's so good at playing Mr. Gloom and Doom that theater owners just named him their "Male Star of Tomorrow." 

"It's very nice of them, especially since most of my movies haven't actually made it to theaters," he says.

Gosling played a Jewish neo-Nazi in "The Believer" - it won the Grand Jury prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and made $406,000 in its commercial release - and a thrill-killer in "Murder by Numbers."

In "The United States of Leland," opening Friday, he kills an autistic boy.

So how did he wind up on the "Mickey Mouse Club" in 1993? 

"I think they needed a Canadian," he says. 

"I have no talent in singing and dancing, although they thought I did.

"Every man in my family works in a paper mill, and I'd probably be doing that, too, if I hadn't learned when I was 11 that there's more out there.

"On the show, I watched a lot and didn't work that much, but I learned it was a place to put my focus. Occasionally, I did joke commercials and skits. I was only there for two seasons."

Spears, Aguilera and Timberlake shared those same seasons.

"I knew they would be very successful," Gosling says. "They have very strong work ethics and are very determined people. 

"They all wanted fame, and they talked about it."

Not Gosling. 

"I want to be left alone."

For "Leland," which co-stars Kevin Spacey, Don Cheadle, Chris Klein, Jena Malone and Michelle Williams, Gosling did research on kid killers at juvenile detention centers.

"I think it's more complicated than video games or music," he says. "They assume because you're young, you're just so easily influenced.

"Leland feels like he's somebody who's watching the movie that is his life. He's giving a running commentary on what's happening to him from moment to moment."

In the upcoming thriller "Stay," with Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, Gosling plays a college student considering suicide. 

"I think about suicide all the time," he says. "I'm not going to do it, but if I did, how would I do it?

"The nice stuff is all covered. You can make movies about flowers. Lots of people are doing that. But there are people who want to see something else."