Ryan Gosling 'Felt Ready To Play A Psycho' In 'Drive'

For those who only know Ryan Gosling from his warm fuzzy work in feel-good films like "The Notebook" and the more recent romantic comedy "Crazy Stupid Love," or for his heroics in breaking up street fights in New York City, watching the easy-on-the-eyes actor play a psycho in his new movie "Drive" may be a shock to your system.

Directed by Nicholas Refn, the action thriller features Gosling as an intense, introverted driver-for-hire. His unnamed character is an automobile stuntman for Hollywood pictures by day and a getaway man for armed crooks by night. All is going relatively well until Gosling's driver becomes involved with his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and offers to help her estranged ex-convict husband, who wants to rid himself of unpaid debts to a group of dangerous criminals. Naturally, things get heated and really violent.

When MTV News caught up with Gosling recently, we asked why he wanted to play a psycho — his word, not ours.

"I don't know, I just felt ready to play a psycho," he said with a smile. "What I was really focused on was making a violent John Hughes movie. I love John Hughes movies," he explained, adding that he would have appreciated them even more had the director infused them with some life-or-death intensity.

"I love 'Pretty in Pink,' but I always wished there was some blood with the cotton candy," he said. "A little violence, a little head-smashing thrown in there for good measure. And so when I met Nicholas, he had had the same fantasy, too, so we just tried to go down that road."

Check out everything we've got on "Drive."

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