What do Ryan Gosling and Macaulay Culkin have in common?
As it turns out, quite a bit! Let's dive in.
Hi! I’m Joey, the creator of Fun Fact Friyay, the newsletter for curious people. Grab a slice of birthday cake for this one.
Today’s fact: Macaulay Culkin and Ryan Gosling are the same age.
I missed the theatrical release of both Home Alone and My Girl due to being a toddler with no concept of what movies were, but I had seen both by the time I was the respective ages of Macaulay Culkin’s characters in the films. And I wore glasses as a kid, just like Thomas J!
Culkin was so ubiquitous onscreen as a child that VH1 named him their No. 2 “Greatest Kid-Star,” behind only Gary Coleman.
Yet, my first exposure to Ryan Gosling came much later than life. I probably saw him in Remember the Titans, though I didn’t know him by name for several years after that.
If you had a similar experience, missing Gosling’s appearances on The Mickey Mouse Club or Are You Afraid of the Dark?, you might be equally blown away by this fact.
Culkin was born on August 26, 1980. Gosling was born on November 12, 1980, making them both 43 years old.
The two actors have plenty of other similarities, too.
They both co-founded bands that are defunct (Gosling’s is still technically active, though they haven’t released music since 2009). Culkin fronted the Pizza Underground while Gosling is in the duo Dead Man’s Bones.
Both actors have received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, too. Gosling (along with LaLa Land co-star Emma Stone) planted his in 2016. Culkin’s is far more recent; he just got his last month (and also last year, LOL New Year’s jokes!), becoming the 2,765th star to place his hands and feet in cement.
The duo has given us iconic Christmas performances, too. Culkin has Home Alone, of course, though Gosling’s SNL sketch, “Santa Baby,” about an adult couple that learns Santa Claus is at a party they’re attending, is phenomenally bizarre.
AND they both have two children…okay, that’s not so strange. But they met their partners via making movies—Gosling started dating Eva Mendes in 2011 shooting The Place Beyond the Pines, and Culkin met Brenda Song in 2018 while filming the movie Changeland.
And they say workplace relationships can’t work out!
Let’s celebrate this fun fact with another classic montage. Here’s Ryan Gosling refusing to eat cereal:
