Scholastic Action Feb. 1999

Teenager Ryan Gosling knows what it takes to be a hero. The young actor plays the title role in the new TV show Young Hercules. Hercules is a warrior-in-training. He's a hero-in-the-making. And the teen who plays Young Hercules knows all about heroic acts After all, this skiny kid who couldn't read is well on his way to becoming a star.

Several years ago, Gosling was having trouble in school. He couldn't read. Or at least he didn't think he could. His teachers would write things on the blackboard. Gosling would stare at the written words, but wouldn't be able to learn from what was written. "They were always teaching all this stuff on the blackboard and I couldn't learn by just reading it," Gosling told Action. He knew there was something wrong. He could read the actual words. But he wasn't learning anything. So his mother took him out of school.

"She had me tested," says Gosling. "It turns out that I'm a kinesthetic learner. I need to touch things in order to learn them. So my mom had me do a lot of projects, things I could get my hands on. I built things. I touched things. When I did that, I remembered what I learned."

Gosling's mom has taught him at home ever since. Now the young actor loves to learn--and to read. He says his favorite book is Lord of the Rings. He also loves reading about goblins. If and when he stops acting, he says he'd like to be a kindergarten teacher.

Of course, Gosling may never stop acting. He's been doing it for a long time. When he was 12, he beat out 17,000 other kids to land a role on The Mickey Mouse Club with Keri Russell and two of the members of the band 'NSync. He played the role of Sean Hanlon on the popular TV show Breaker High. Then, in a herculean effort to land the role of the hero he plays now. Gosling padded his skinny body with six T-shirts before the audition. He was called back seven times before he landed the role.

The Canadian-born actor lives in New Zealand now. That's where Young Hercules is filmed. His mom is there with him, still teaching him, still helping him toward his goal of graduating from high school and going to college.

Gosling, who is eighteen, says he should have graduated from high school last year. Filming Young Hercules took up so much of his time that he fell a bit behind. He plans on getting his diploma next year.

Learning is still a struggle for Gosling. He still needs to touch things to remember them. "Even now, when I learn lines for Young Hercules I really can't learn them at night, when I'm not with the other actors," Gosling told Action. "I have to be there and touch the person I'm saying the lines to, and once I do that, I remember my lines. But before that, I can't just sit at home and memorize."

Many people with Gosling's problem would just stop trying to learn. But for this young hero, it isn't an option. "When you finally understand something," he says, "you feel like the smartest person in the world."

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