Los Angeles – Ryan Reynolds waited 11 years before his dream project, “Deadpool,” was made.
The actor shared, “Eleven years ago, I was given the comic, and the guy that sent them over said, ‘You are Deadpool.’ I said, ‘I don’t know what Deadpool is. Is it a Clint Eastwood movie?’ And he said, ‘If they ever make a movie about Deadpool, you are Deadpool.’ So I read these comics and one of the first ones I opened up, there is a panel in the comic where Deadpool says, and this is in 2004, ‘I look like a cross between Ryan Reynolds and a Shar Pei.’
“And I just thought, wow, that’s a little meta and weird… So I started reading the rest of the comic books and I was referenced a few more times in there, just me as a person. I just loved that. I also loved that it broke every traditional rule that comic books or comic book movies have.”
The 39-year-old actor explained further that he did everything he could to have the film done but “it made no impression at all. I had every door slammed in my face.
“Then we made a test footage and it was accidentally leaked onto the internet by some person involved in criminal behavior, which I do not condone, and that then transfers into this just overwhelming tsunami of feedback for the studio and that’s what did it. The fans got the movie made, not me or anyone else. The fans overwhelmed the studio. So within 24 hours of that, we got a green light.”
Directed by Tim Miller, the superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Recently, it broke all records with an impressive $135 million opening.
In the movie, Ryan portrays Wade Wilson, a mercenary who spends his time protecting teenage girls from would-be stalkers in New York City. Later, he discovers he has terminal cancer and is approached by a recruiter for a secret program to cure his cancer. Instead, something happens and he gains some super powers. He becomes Deadpool.
We asked him how much fun he had doing the character and how much did he assimilate into the character. “It’s sort of the chicken and the egg kind of thing, 11 years trying to make this movie, so the line between Ryan and Wade are somewhat blurry, at least my wife (Blake Lively) believes that. And so it’s been a hell of a journey, and once we actually got to set and the moment where we actually got to start filming this thing, it was like a dream come true for me.”
Ryan also shared, “I produced this movie exclusively to protect Deadpool, to protect the origin story of Deadpool, to protect the canon of Deadpool, and just to make sure that what we put on screen is the most authentic version of Deadpool that could ever be represented on screen. I have been down the road before where it wasn’t and I was never going to let that happen again.”
Asked how similar he was to Deadpool, Ryan confessed, “I have a tendency to be able to turn this thing on that is sort of like a non-stop meme machine, and then on the other end of the spectrum, it could just be like this corrosive, acerbic wit. I was lucky, because I grew up in a family with three older brothers and I had to rely on my mouth more than I could rely on my fists. So I cultivated these certain aspects of my personality that I can sort of choose to turn on and off. In interviews like this I try to keep it contained and answer questions normally, but when I put the big, red costume on, it’s go time.”
Deadpool.
Now a father to one-year-old daughter James (named after his father) with Blake, Ryan was recently chosen by People magazine as this year’s “Sexiest Dad Alive.”
So what does he think Deadpool would change if ever the character became a dad and what did he have to change himself when he became a dad, we asked.
“You change everything when you become a dad,” he admitted. “I never imagined I would be doing the things that I am doing. The other day, I changed a diaper that was so bad, I thought we would have to move to another town. I just opened the diaper and there were gang signs in there. So obviously there are things that changed, but I love it, and I love being a dad and I love having a baby. I always knew I would love that part of it. But everything, like the tough stuff, I like the tough stuff, and I like the easy stuff. So my wife and I are pretty hands on with it all and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
“But as for Deadpool being a dad, that would make for a hell of a movie. He wouldn’t watch his language. So you would have this little cussing infant… or something. Deadpool loves his compound swear words as we have learned. So I don’t know, we will see.”
Now that they are parents, Ryan revealed that Blake and he don’t work at the same time. He said, “If I am shooting, she is with me and the baby; if she is shooting, I am with her with the baby.”
His favorite time with his daughter? “I like that time in the morning when she wakes up laughing and funny. That time in the morning is really cool and I usually wake up a couple of hours earlier just so I can devote all that time to her.”
As for his wife’s first reaction when she saw him in the Deadpool costume, Ryan pointed out, “Oh, my wife is not going to complain about too tight. She is fine with that. She is great, she loved it and she knew it was an 11-year dream of mine to bring this to the screen, to do it the right way. So she loved it. My baby didn’t. When she saw the scar make-up, my daughter just cried. Every time she saw the scar make-up she started crying. She heard my voice, but I looked like a deep fried (body part). So yeah, it was tough. It was very, very tough for her.”
So what character traits would he like his daughter to inherit from Blake and from him, we asked. “From Blake, I really want her to inherit her sincerity,” he said. “And from me, I would imagine just unblinking violence and sarcasm. I want her to be able to defend herself.”
CREDITS: Janet Nepales, Manila Bulletin
