Ryan Gosling reveals plenty about his childhood in a new, intimate interview.
Ryan Gosling is opening up about his quirky childhood and his current life with his longtime love, Eva Mendes.
The notoriously private actor covers the January issue of GQ, in which he says he's living a "dream" life thanks to his family. Gosling and Mendes have two daughters together, 2-year-old Esmeralda and 7-month-old Amada.
"In my situation, Eva's the dream mother, and they're dream babies, and it's like a dream that I'm having right now," the 36-year-old tells the magazine. "I'm dreaming it all. So I feel so lucky."
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"There's a kind of chaos in it that I love," he adds about being a father. "Maybe in my life I sort of put myself in situations that were chaotic, outside of my life. And now I have it at home, and I don't have to go looking for it."
Gosling says he didn't plan on having children.
"It's not something I really thought about, or even thought I wanted," he shares. "I didn't have a romanticized idea of it.… It came about in a very surprising and kind of organic way. There was nothing kind of premeditated about it, you know. It just suddenly was: My life had changed. And thank God it did."
The actor admits to having some insecurity about raising his daughters, since his own parents split up when has young. Gosling acknowledges that he had a "complicated" relationship with his father, though the two have since made up.
"[But] when you meet your kids you realize that they deserve great parents," he says. "And then you have your marching orders and you have to try and become the person that they deserve. I mean, it's a relief when you realize that they are who they are. You're nervous that they'll get all the qualities of yourself that you have been struggling with, and then you realize that they're not you. And it's a relief."
Gosling talks in-depth about growing up in Ontario, Canada, particularly about his difficult time in school. Gosling says he hated being a kid, and was homeschooled for a year.
"I just felt this sense of: I have a limited amount of time and, you know, I've got to get started," he explains. "I also didn't like the arbitrariness of control that people seemed to have over me."
The La La Land actor says his less-than-pleasant school experience definitely affected his self-esteem.
"I was doing very badly in school, and I just couldn't remember what the teachers were talking about," he adds. "I felt like it looked easier for everyone else and it was harder for me. It affected my self-worth."
"I mean, they started feathering me into some special-education classes and things like that," he continues. "I remember playing chess with a kid who was eating his queen, you know."
Of course, these days, Gosling is one of the most respected and successful actors in Hollywood. Aside from promoting the critically-acclaimed La La Land, the A-lister is currently filming Blade Runner 2049, a sequel to Ridley Scott's iconic 1982 sci-fi starring Harrison Ford. Gosling shares some colorful times the two have been having on set in Hungary, including when 74-year-old Ford punched him in the face.
"We were just doing a fight scene and, you know, it just happened," he says. "But what was funny was, when it was over, they brought ice for my face, and Harrison pushed me out of the way and stuck his fist in the ice."
"You know…he's tough," he says when asked if the hit hurt. "He's been an inspiration to everyone -- everyone is doing push-ups now and taking an interest in their fitness. As soon as it happened, the director came up to me and said, 'Look at it this way -- you just got hit by Indiana Jones.'"
Still, the incident hasn't changed his perception of the legendary Star Wars actor.
"He came by afterward with this bottle of scotch, and I thought, 'Oh, I knew this was coming,'" Gosling says. "And he pulled out a glass from his pocket, poured me a glass, and walked away with the rest of the bottle. So I guess he felt like he didn't connect enough to earn a whole bottle."
"You know, they say don't meet your heroes, but I would say the addendum to that is '…unless they're Harrison Ford,'" Gosling jokes. "'Cause he's a cool motherf**ker."
WATCH: Ryan Gosling Shares 'Blade Runner' Set Stories With Harrison Ford
ET spoke to the father of two at the La La Land premiere in Los Angeles earlier this month, where he talked about his uncle being an Elvis Presley impersonator and being part of the act when he was just 8 years old. Watch below: