After Elvis and the Oscar-nomination, the 32-year-old actor is back with two buzzy projects: Masters of the Air and Dune: Part Two. He’s got a burning ambition and old-school Hollywood charm—and steely-eyed focus on just one thing.

For an actor it’s a strange experience to come upon a character you’re about to play in the flesh — or in the plastic. After Ryan Gosling first read the script for Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” he walked into his backyard and found the real thing — one of his daughters’ Ken dolls — lying in the dirt, naked, with his...

The twists and turns of Jake Gyllenhaal’s unlikely, unsettling action career have brought him to Road House.