Ryan Gosling: "I think like a girl"

Ryan Gosling has given an interview to 'The Sunday Times' where he says growing up with his single parent mother and sister helped shape him.

"I feel that I think like a girl, just through osmosis, really, living with my mom and my sister. They talk so much. If you live in a house with just women when your brain is forming, well, I think my thought process became more similar to a woman's. I talk to my friends and I feel a  connection. A lot of my friends grew up with single mothers. And it's like we communicate differently. I never spent a lot of time around guys."

In fact, he reveals, his early acting career - Gosling  joined Disney's Mickey Mouse Club age 12, alongside Britney and Justin Timberlake - partly broke up his parents' marriage.

His mother and sister moved to be with him in Florida. His father remained behind in Ontario.

Being a child star was tough, he observes. "You're 12 but nobody looks at you like you're 12. You are there to do a job, you have a schedule, you're paying rent… You have grown men calling you 'sir', and running around to get you sandwiches… Some of the kids got caught up in it, and you could see them become tyrants."

Returning to normal life in Ontario after his two-year stint was equally hard. "You get into fights, you get called names, 'You're gay', you're just a target."

Hyper-active, he was home schooled. Then after he was diagnosed with attention defecit hyperactivity disorder, he was prescribed Ritalin.

He came off it after  short period. "What I didn't realise was that most of what I was feeling was ambition."

In his new movie, 'The Place Beyond The Pines', Gosling  plays a carnival stunt rider-turned bank robber.

The film stars his real-life girlfriend Eva Mendes (he has also dated former co-stars Sandra Bullock and Rachel McAdams).

He won't talk about his private life directly but observes: "Making something with someone is probably the best way to get to know them, so when you work with someone in a creative way, you kind of fast-track and learn who the other is pretty quickly. Most of my friendships have come about the same way… Hanging out is not really my way of connecting with somebody. I'd rather go and make something. And in the process of doing that, you get to know somebody in a way that's very special."

'The Place Beyond the Pines' is out on 12 April