Ryan Gosling, nominated for an Academy Award for his role in ‘La La Land’ (2016), recently expressed regret over a scene he wishes he could reshoot. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gosling admitted, “There’s something about that dance with Emma that still bothers me.” He was referring to the iconic dance sequence between him and Emma Stone in Griffith Park, overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, which was also used for the film’s poster.
“There’s this moment in the dance with Emma that haunts me. I didn’t know it was going to be the poster for the movie,” Gosling explained. He elaborated on his concern, saying, “We were supposed to have our arms up, but I thought it was cooler to have our hands like that.” Gosling’s hand placement in the dance – where Emma Stone’s hand is straight up, while his is angled, with a slight bend at the wrist – has been a source of internal conflict for him.
While others at the time considered his hand gesture uncool, Gosling felt strongly that it added a cooler touch. He admitted, “I have to see it all the time now [because of the poster], and I’m questioning whether it was cool.” He jokingly referred to his hand movement as a “hamburger hand,” saying, “It’s just deflating. It’s just lazy. I call it ‘The La La Hand.’”
In the world of dance, this specific hand gesture is often called the “hamburger hands.” When asked if his early dance experience with the Disney Channel show ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ had helped him in any way, Gosling humorously replied, “I thought it would. But then you have the Hamburger Hand Gosling… So maybe it didn’t help at all.”
