Supporting Roles: Ryan Gosling as Darfur Activist and Humble Star - Washington Post

How to avoid being a pompous celebrity activist type? Follow the lead of Ryan Gosling. Headlining a panel here yesterday with the title of "Confronting Genocide and Mass Atrocities," the young Oscar nominee took an abashed, self-deprecating approach.

"For some reason, there's an interest in what people who do what I do have to say," the actor murmured. "I don't particularly have that much to say . . . but I do have these experiences that I can relay. I'm honored to have these experiences."

(Aw, shucks. We're not going to be able to make fun of this one.)

The 27-year-old Gosling was Hollywood's rep to this year's Campus Progress National Conference, a confab of about 300 lefty college activists at the Omni Shoreham. His topic: Darfur. Gosling sounded sheepish, reports our colleague Marissa Newhall, describing the way the children he met on a visit to refugee camps stared at him: "Not like I was just some actor from Hollywood who was there to have an experience. They looked at me like I was somebody who could really do something. And I didn't consider myself in that way."

He added: "I still can see the way they looked at me."

Gosling -- close-cropped hair, cargo-style shirt, navy pants, combat boots, gold watch -- spoke softly and deferred to his fellow panelists, ENOUGH Project Co-chairman John Prendergast and African activists Betty Bigombe and Omer Ismail, playing interviewer and letting them tell the stories. The four had obviously spent much time together, evidenced by the convivial banter. The actor playfully flirted with Bigombe, a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, praising her beauty until she in return joked how handsome he was.

"I'm single, by the way," Gosling noted, drawing whistles and hoots from the college gals. "Do what you want with that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR200807...