Ryan Gosling: Men don’t obsess about weddings

The 30-year-old Canadian actor has dated some of Hollywood’s most beautiful women in the past, including his The Notebook co-star Rachel McAdams. He has recently been linked to Michelle Williams, with whom he appears in hotly debated new film Blue Valentine, although the pair are remaining tight-lipped about romance rumours.

In Blue Valentine Ryan and Michelle portray married couple Dean and Cindy, and exploring the institution of marriage for the part has made Ryan reflect on his opinions. Ryan considers there to be a vast difference in the way males and females view matrimony, though he admits he may be guilty of stereotyping.

 "Well, I think we're not planning our weddings from the time that we're six," he said of the masculine approach to nuptials. "We're putting them off as long as we can, and I think we get married for different reasons.

"I'm just generalising really. I think everybody's different, but I think the approach worked for the character."

Ryan took his part in Blue Valentine so seriously that he couldn’t get the movie out of his mind. The star never stopped seeking inspiration for the film, and admits his own experiences and those of his pals influenced it.

"It made me think about everything. When you're making a movie like this you wrack your brain to think about your experiences. I had five years to think about it. I had a Blue Valentine file in my brain, so every time something happened in my life or someone else's life, I would ear-mark it and put it in the file," he told British newspaper The Independent.