I Was A Teenage Hercules - TV Guide (USA) - 1998 (September 26)
This article is from the USA magazine TV Guide, dated September 26, 1998, featuring Ryan Gosling.
The high-res magazine scans are from Bryn.
I Was A Teenage Hercules
Ryan Gosling gives a portrait of a hero as a young man
By Annabel Vered.
Talk about stretching as an actor. When Ryan Gosling auditioned (seven times) for the title role on Young Hercules, he padded himself to give a more muscular appearance. "I'm not supercut, and I don't work out all the time," the 17-year-old says during a phone call from New Zealand, where the action-adventure series (from the creators of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess) is filmed. "[So] I put on six T-shirts and tried to look bigger." A Hercules prequel, Young Hercules (Fox Kids Network, weekdays at 4:30 P.M./ET), follows the adventures of a still-growing teenager and his two friends who attend an academy for warriors. "It's about a kid turning into a hero," Gosling says.
The London, Ontario, native landed his breakthrough role last year on UPN's teen series Breaker High, playing Sean Hanlon. That job prepared Gosling for the intense shooting schedule of Young Hercules, which keeps him so busy that he doesn't have much time for a social life, let alone a girlfriend. "My mom, that's the only woman in my life," he jokes. "I'm not getting any offers." So is the actor ready to become the next teen pinup? "For now, I'm just going to keep doing the work and hope I don't get fired. If people want to put me up on their walls, I'll love it."