Ryan Gosling was a naughty, naughty child.
The 32-year-old actor was badly behaved from a young age, at times running naked out of the house to even worse extremes, such as setting his house on fire.
Despite having a loving family, Gosling struggled in school and regularly fought with his classmates. His behaviour eventually became so difficult his mum Donna gave up her job as a secretary to educate and care for her son full-time.
"I do feel bad for my mother, because it never stopped," he says. "I felt like I was going crazy as a kid. I wanted to be a man, get a job."
Gosling's latest film 'The Place Beyond the Pines' - in which he plays a motorcycle stunt rider who robs a bank - has given him the opportunity to search into his childhood and remember earlier parts of his life that had a profound effect.
The star - who is dating Eva Mendes - witnessed a shocking motorcycle accident as a child which came back to him during filming.
He added: "It gives you a chance to go back and re-explore some early experience when you were being formed as a person ... I was just a kid walking to school when I saw this guy get hit. I went up to him and he had blood coming from behind his head."
Although many people would have been traumatized by the incident, Gosling was actually inspired to buy his own bike - even though he was only 12 and couldn't ride it.
He explained: "My first thought was, 'I've got to get a motorcycle.' There's something messed up with my brain."
