Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling sparred onstage at the Oscars on Sunday in a humorous bit that kept the “Barbenheimer” rivalry from the summer alive.
The actors, who are nominated, respectively, for “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” were there to present a tribute to the stunt community in a blatant plug for their upcoming “Fall Guy” movie.
Blunt took exception to Gosling’s “frosty” hello, to which he said, “I’m just happy we can finally put this Barbenheimer rivalry behind us.”
“The way this awards seasons turned out wasn’t that much of a rivalry,” Blunt replied, gloating in the fact that the Christopher Nolan biopic earned 13 nominations to a mere nine for the Greta Gerwig-directed blockbuster.
Gosling zinged her back, saying, “You know, I think I kind of figured out why they call it ‘Barbenheimer” and they didn’t call it ‘Offenbarbie.” I think you guys are at the tail end of that because you were riding “Barbie’s coattails all summer.”
“Thanks for Ken-splaining that to me,” Blunt snapped. “All right, Mr. ‘I Need to Paint My Abs to Get Nominated…’”
Gosling then interrupted her, saying, “We have to squash this. We’re here to celebrate the stunt community.”
The pair went on to introduce a clip of amazing stunts from iconic films, including the cross-building window leap from “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
Blunt received her first Oscar nomination for playing Kitty Oppenheimer, the wife of Cillian Murphy’s bomb-building physicist. Gosling received his first Supporting Actor nomination (his third Oscar nod overall) as Ken, the doll who is madly in love with Margot Robbie’s Barbie.
Gosling will be performing the nominated song, “I’m Just Ken,” live during the show. However, he lost out on Best Supporting Actor, which went to none other than “Oppenheimer” star Robert Downey Jr.
“The Fall Guy,” based on the ’80s action-comedy series of the same name, opens in theaters on May 4.
