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Gosling Choice for Texas Ken Lead
in Star-Studded Paxton Ordeal Cast
Capitol Inside
September 2, 2023
Ryan Gosling hit a home run in the highest-grossing movie of the year as the iconic character Ken in Greta Gerwig's Barbie. He could be the perfect choice for the role of another Ken who's almost as famous. just as fun and appealing to women in his age range in a feature film about the circus that's set to open with Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment trial in the Texas Senate on Tuesday.
Gosling would have the lose the tan and platinum crown that he wore for Barbie. But Gosling - a Canadian who was born in Ontario - wouldn't have to learn to talk with a drawl like a native Texan in light of the fact that Paxton isn't one himself. While it would require some high-level makeup artists to make Gosling look almost 20 years older for the Paxton part, the two share a common physical bond with a lazy eye as a signature characteristic. There's an undeniable resemblance - albeit it subtle - in the faces as well.
Gosling would be tough to beat for the Paxton part. He broke his teeth on show business as a Mickey Mouse club member before a distinguished career as a thespian who's scored two Oscar nods and appears destined for a third for his work in Barbie. But he's been preparing for the part of the other Ken throughout an adult career based on the range of the roles that he's had at the top of the A-list.
Gosling for starters played a highly successful attorney opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 2007 film Fracture. Paxton served for eight years and five months as the top state lawyer here before the Texas House voted 121-23 to give him the boot. The personal legal intrigue would intensify in an untitled Paxton project with the State of Bar of Texas threatening to disbar him.
Gosling played a devious hedge fund manager in The Big Short. He received acclaim as a political operative in the grey areas in the George Clooney movie The Ides of March. Gosling was a cop in Gangster Squad. He robbed banks in The Place Behind the Pines. But Gosling's best selling point for a Paxton casting may be a role that he had as man with a secret identity in The Gray Man. The new Ken film would probably contain scenes with a character that Paxton created to cloak his own identity on Uber rides to the home of an alleged mistress and other destinations from Los Angeles to Chicago for reasons that are still unknown.
With Gosling in unrivaled demand, Andrew Garfield could be Plan B for Paxton as another major talent who was dynamite as the television evangelist who made a fortune off Jesus and went to prison in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
But Paxton isn't the only character with Academy Award potential in a movie that would be a novel combination of comedy, family drama, Texana, legal chessmatch and historic suspense thriller that features scenes at the U.S. Supreme Court and the riot on January 6 in which the AG was a key participant.
Will Ferrell gets the vote here for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who's ranked as the second most important member of the possible Paxton movie cast. People who watch the impeachment trial will probably agree. Hopkins is a possibility if Patrick isn't that funny in his own new role as the judge in the proceedings that Paxton's camp has branded as a kangaroo court. But Patrick is one of several major characters who would have the ability to play himself.
Nate Paul - the real estate developer and contributor who's Paxton's closest pal - is third in the tentative credits at the heart of the scandal. But Paul's casting could be more of a challenge as a handsome character with darker skin than the protagonist as a product of parents from India. Dev Patel could be ideal if the filmmakers as a British actor whose parents moved the family to England from Kenya. Patel's breakthrough role came in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire - and he earned a nod from the Academy for best supporting actor for his work in the film Lion.
Emma Stone would have a chance to team up with Gosling again if she sought and won the part of Laura Olson - who Texas House prosecutors have portrayed as a Paxton love interest who was an integral piece of a bribery scheme involving the attorney general and Paul. Stone and Gosling thought they'd won an Academy Award for best picture together for La La Land before it was yanked away on the stage and given to the movie that actually won in the balloting. Stone has one of the biggest smiles in the movie business and could be an excellent choice for the Olson character - especially if Gosling is performing with her as Paxton.
Middle-aged actors with dark hair and a proven ability to grow a handlebar mustache with curls on the tips may have the best shots at callbacks if they audition for the role of Republican State Rep. Andrew Murr as the General Investigating Committee chairman who spearheaded a stealth probe that led to Paxton's impeachment in the House on a vote of 121-23 on the final weekend in May.
Murr's committee warmed up for the Paxton ambush when it voted to expel Republican Bryan Slaton from the lower chamber earlier that month for violating a brand new rule that prohibits representatives from having sex with staffers they supervise. But the unanimous House vote to strip Slaton of the House seat that he'd won twice appeared to be more of a contest on the popularity of a member whose only friend in the chamber betrayed him when the heat was on. Slaton got railroaded and Murr was driving the train.
Murr and a band of House managers who he's leading to battle have raised the bar on the concept of trying a high-profile case in the press. The Senate has a gag order in effect on anyone with direct connections to the impeachment. But that hasn't stop almost daily leaks to selective major newspapers on a rotating basis for several weeks with information and allegations that are highly incriminating and will be explored in more detail at the trial.
But the House impoeachment managers arguably deserve the most credit for the expansion of the story into the comedy realm with the introduction of the chacter Dave P that Paxton played himself in real life when using burner phone apps to flag down Uber rides for trips to places where he didn't want to get caught but did anyway.
Stay tuned for more on Paxton the Movie ... |
