SEOUL – K-pop idol Jimin of boy band BTS can now strum on Ken’s guitar from the Barbie movie.

Canadian actor Ryan Gosling, 42, plays the boyfriend of the iconic doll in the fantasy comedy starring Margot Robbie. He gifted Jimin, 27, with the movie prop after copying his cowboy look from BTS’ Permission To Dance (2021) music video.

Jimin, a self-confessed Gosling fan, thanked the Hollywood star in an Instagram video on Monday.

“Hi Ryan and hi Ken, it’s Jimin. Congrats on your big release,” he said. “I could see that you look great in my outfit. Thank you for this guitar. I really love it and I look forward to watching Barbie. Go, Barbie.”

Last week, Gosling had appeared in a video shared on the movie’s Instagram account, in which he acknowledged that Jimin had worn the Western ensemble first and “definitely wore it best”.

“There’s an unspoken Ken code that if you bite another Ken’s style, you have to give them your most prized possession,” Gosling added.

“So, I hope you’ll accept Ken’s guitar as my humble offering. Besides, Ken doesn’t really play anyway, so it’ll be much better in your hands.”

In other Barbie news – Irish actor Cillian Murphy, who plays atomic bomb creator J. Robert Oppenheimer in the period biopic Oppenheimer – is open to making Barbenheimer a reality, saying he is happy to take on the role of Ken
in a Barbie sequel.

The Internet coined the term “Barbenheimer” as the two summer blockbusters – Barbie and Oppenheimer – opened on the same day last week.

Murphy, 47, said in an interview with entertainment website Cinefilos: “Would I play a Ken in Barbie 2? Sure. Let’s read the script and let’s have a conversation.”

However, Barbie director Greta Gerwig, 39, does not see a sequel on the cards.

“I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I’ll never have another idea and everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I did,” she said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday.

“I wouldn’t want to squash anybody else’s dream, but for me, at this moment, I’m at totally zero.”