A Concussion-Addled Ryan Gosling Invented a Strange Donut Conspiracy

Good news: Ryan Gosling has a new movie coming out, in which he plays Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.

Bad news: physically training for the film gave him a concussion.

Hilarious news: In his concussed state, Gosling invented his own conspiracy theory that people around the world were trying to scam their way into free donuts.

Gosling told the story on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and explained how his wife, Eva Mendes, was the first to figure out that things weren’t quite right with her husband.

The actor developed the concussion after spending time at NASA to train for the role. They put him into a “multi-axis trainer” that was used to help prepare astronauts for the intense motions they might experience tumbling around in space. The trainer is a chair mounted on a series of rotating circular frames, causing the person strapped into it to roll and pitch, constantly changing direction and orientation. Or as Gosling described it, “it’s this thing that kind of sends you ass over teakettle.”

To get shots for the film, Gosling spent six to eight hours in the trainer. That, along with banging his head in capsules used in filming, clearly did something to his head, and he began to realize that “something might be wrong.”

But in his disoriented state, Gosling’s idea of what was actually wrong was a little . . . off.

“I went home one night, and I called Eva,” he explained, “and I was just hell-bent on this idea that there were people in donut stores all around the world, you know, trying to charm their way into getting free donuts.”

Mendes clearly realized that there was a problem, and it wasn’t gratis donuts. She suggested to her husband that he might be experiencing some “drain bamage,” but Gosling didn’t even catch the joke.

“I was like, no,” Gosling went on. “No, there’s donut charmers everywhere, and it’s a problem, and no one’s doing anything about it.”

Eventually, she convinced him to go to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a minor concussion.

So, just in case you were about to go out and try it, there is no donut conspiracy. Repeat, you absolutely cannot charm your way into a free donut. 

…or can you?