Ryan Gosling awkwardly brushes off co-star Simu Liu on Barbie red carpet

A video has resurfaced of Ryan Gosling and co-star Simu Liu sharing a tense moment on the red carpet at the film’s press day in last month.

Ryan Gosling awkwardly brushes off Simu Liu on ‘Barbie’ red carpet

It’s a battle of the Kens in real life.

Amid the ongoing fan craze over Greta Gerwig’s new Barbie movie, a video has resurfaced of Ryan Gosling (Ken) brusquely brushing off co-star Simu Liu (also Ken) at the film’s press day in Canada last month.

As the duo posed for photographers on the red carpet on June 28, Liu, 34, tried to slip his hand around Gosling’s waist.

It appears Gosling, 42, wasn’t too fond of the gesture, seemingly saying, “Don’t hold me there, man. I mean, do you want me to touch you like that?”

In response, Liu said, “You don’t what – oh, it’s too tender? Fair enough,” before removing his arm away from Gosling.

Naturally, fans were quick to weigh in on the awkward interaction via social media.

“Oh I’d literally never show my face again,” one argued on Twitter, while another noted, “He [Gosling] was so mad after like you can see it in his face.”

Meanwhile, others theorised that perhaps Gosling and Liu were just trying to play up their roles as different Kens in the film.

“I think it’s their characters playing like they hate each other cause they are in competition with each other in the movie,” one fan explained. “It ain’t that deep.”

Hands to yourselves, boys.

As previously reported, Gosling has received raving reviews for his role as Barbie’s clueless male sidekick.

However, prior to the film’s release, he was forced to defend his casting earlier this year when trolls claimed he was “too old” for the part.

“I would say, you know, if people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with,” he told GQ in a June interview, adding he thinks the furious discourse over Ken is “funny” given that people didn’t even think about Ken before he was cast.

The co-stars then looked awkward in the professional photos taken on the red carpet. Picture: by Mathew Tsang/Getty Images

Simu Liu looked especially uncomfortable despite trying to muster a smile. Picture: Mathew Tsang/Getty Images

“But suddenly, it’s like, ’No, we’ve cared about Ken this whole time,’” he added. “No, you didn’t. You never did. You never cared. Barbie never f***ed with Ken. That’s the point.”

The Notebook star concluded, “If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken. So your hypocrisy is exposed. This is why his story must be told.”

Barbie, which stars Margot Robbie as the titular, flaxen-haired character, is already a box office smash.

The Gerwig-directed flick, in cinemas now, pulled in over $21.6 million in Australia on its first weekend of release and a whopping $501 million worldwide.

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Ryan Gosling awkwardly brushes off co-star Simu Liu on Barbie red carpet