Memo to Gene Wilder: If you are reading this, contact Ryan Gosling. The 26-year-old Canadian actor nominated this year for his haunting turn as a strung-out schoolteacher in "Half Nelson" really wants to work with you. His dream, he says, is "just to work with (Wilder) in any way."

Wilder's name comes up, along with James Stewart's, at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Gosling is supporting his latest movie, "Lars and the Real Girl," which opens Friday. In it, he plays the title character, a withdrawn and socially awkward young man, fearful of human interaction and yet craving it, who orders an anatomically correct sex doll over the Internet and introduces her to everyone as his new girlfriend, Bianca. That may sound like the premise of a dirty joke, but as the tiny, snowbound town heeds a doctor's advice to humor Lars' delusion and welcomes Bianca into their community, the drama that develops is the farthest thing from that.

The Ryan Gosling love-doll comedy, Lars and the Real Girl, scored $84,000 at seven theaters, for the weekend's second best per-screen average. Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Limited, now at 95 theaters, rolled to its best take yet, $1.1 million ($2.2 million overall).

Source: E-News.

TORONTO (AP) — Ryan Gosling could be the Sundance Kid, emerging out of that indie film festival with such gritty dramas as "The Believer," "The United States of Leland" and "Half Nelson," which earned him an Academy Award nomination.
In those films, he played a Jewish teen posing as an anti-Semitic skinhead, a youth who slays an autistic boy and an inner-city teacher with a drug problem.
So Gosling's one of those brooding actors drawn to dusky roles, like Sean Penn.
But wait. Gosling also took the heartthrob route, playing a resolute lover in the romantic drama "The Notebook" and again shows a tender side with "Lars and the Real Girl," an oddball romance that opens Friday.

So Gosling's one of those moon-eyed guys aching to play sweetheart roles.
Wait again. In the new movie, Gosling's Lars starts out as a slightly creepy misfit whose new girlfriend is an inanimate, life-size doll.

AN odd reverence comes over Ryan Gosling as he describes the weeks he spent on the outskirts of wintry Toronto in an unheated garage apartment with Bianca, an eerily lifelike silicone sex doll who costars with him in his new film, "Lars and the Real Girl." As he speaks, his deep-set eyes wander out the window, lost in memories of their emotional scenes and the "calming presence" the petite, heavy-lidded brunet brought to the set. Their bond grew so meaningful, in fact, that he took Bianca home with him to his place in L.A. after the movie wrapped. Now, she spends her time reading by a window or watching him cook.

"If you could see her, if you could spend 10 minutes with her, you could see what I mean, you'd fall in love with her too," he says. "She's got beautiful little freckles. You think that she's looking at you sometimes. Or that you just caught her blinking. We just kind of developed this bond where I felt safe in the scenes with her to try anything, do anything. I can understand in some way, not just Lars, but the guys who have these dolls."

Click on the image to see full size.

Awards: 2007 Film Independent Spirit Award as best male lead in "Half Nelson"; 2006 National Board of Review Award for best breakthrough performance male for "Half Nelson." Current credit: As the sweet-natured but shy Lars, who embarks on an emotional love affair with the reserved Bianca, a life-size and surprisingly realistic-looking "companion" doll, in MGM's "Lars and the Real Girl." Memberships: Screen Actors Guild; Academy member since 2007.

The Hollywood Reporter: This is a truly unusual love story and a serious departure from your previous film "Half Nelson," a gritty drama for which you earned a best actor Oscar nomination. What did you first think when you were sent Nancy Oliver's script for "Lars and the Real Girl"?
Ryan Gosling: I thought the concept was funny, but I didn't think it could hold up for a whole movie. Then I read it, and I thought, 'Wow.' I'd been waiting to read a script like that my whole life. I didn't want it to end. It was completely unique. I think it's a movie for people who are bored with movies. I read it on a Saturday and was committed on Monday. Everyone I've talked to says it's the best script they've ever read.