RYAN GOSLING DOES HOMEWORK TO PLAY TEACHER

Ryan Gosling really did his homework to play a junior high school inner city school teacher in the film Half Nelson. The star of The Notebook moved into a sublet apartment a month before shooting began in the industrialized heart of Brooklyn to be near the school where the film was shot.

Ryan shadowed an 8th grade teacher as well to prepare for his teaching responsibilities during the classroom scenes, becoming a student himself as he sat in the back of the class and observed his technique

“I lived in the neighborhood that we shot in; I was actually a block away in Fort Greene (Brooklyn) right near the school. It was great in the morning I woke up and I walked to school. It was really loose shooting so besides the cameras I felt like I was really teaching the class.”

The teacher Mr. Easton looked so much like Ryan that he was cast to play his brother in the film. Next Ryan says he’s got an interesting project in the works and his sister Mandi is excited about it as well.

“I went out to Red Hook (Brooklyn) to hang out with this teacher named Mr. Easton to see how he teaches his kids but where we shot was just a block from my house so I would walk to work in the morning, then I’d teach and go home.”

Half Nelson opens Friday.rn

“I got a film that I start in the fall called Lars and The Real Girl. I play a hermit who falls in love with a sex doll. Mandi: One of those like real looking blow-up dolls. Ones that look really human. Ryan: It’s very romantic!”