Ryan Gosling Shares The Rare Advice He Got From This Hollywood Legend

Ryan Gosling and Burt Reynolds may have found friendship beyond the set of Frankenstein And Me if the latter were not attracted to Ryan’s mom, Donna. He looked forward to a blossoming relationship with the late actor as a teenager, only to discover Burt was gunning for his mother.

“I thought he took a shine to me. I thought he thought there was something special about me. And then I realized that I have a very beautiful mom,” Ryan recalled. Regardless of the disappointment, the actor left with a bizarre piece of advice from Burt, who never got to date his mother anyway.

What did Burt Reyolds tell Ryan Gosling?

While speaking with Jimmy Kimmel on his talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Ryan answered in the affirmative when asked if Burt was friendly to work with. “Yeah, but you know. He was being friendly. He would sign stuff all the time. He signed a Mean Machine t-shirt,” Ryan answered.

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In addition to Burt advising kids like Ryan to avoid seeing Deliverance, which Ryan regrettably did, the late film icon had a piece of advice for the then-upcoming actor. “He gave me this odd piece of advice,” Ryan recalled. “He was like, ‘Let me tell you something kid, Don’t spend your whole life stepping over diamonds to live with a cubic zirconia.’”

About Burt’s “wise words” to Ryan, it is quite unclear if the La La Land star cracked its meaning; however, he was more interested in Burt letting his mom be. “I don’t know what any of that is,” he had thought at the time. “Stop looking at my mom. I’m right here.”

Interestingly, Donna was flattered by Burt’s interest in her and relished it much to Ryan’s further dismay. “He was just kind of interested. It was like I was getting like a secondary shine. The real shine was for my mom. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is secondary shine,’” he recounted. “My god, she loved it, are you kidding me?”