Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor with dual trademarks of adept comic timing and weirdly charming cockiness.
His performance as the eponymous Van Wilder made him a big star, as well as typecast him. Later, he got to branch out in big films as Wade Wilson/Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Hal Jordan in the Green Lantern (2011) film. He starred as Wade Wilson/Deadpool again (in Truer to the Text fashion) in the Deadpool movies, which wouldn't have happened without his personal determination. He's set to continue playing the character even after the X-Men film franchise was absorbed and rebooted into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In his lesser-known works (ex: Buried, Chaos Theory), he's also proven himself a suitable dramatic actor with more to his skillset than his familiar sardonic persona.
As it turns out, Reynolds is also an amazing pitchman, which started after he bought a gin label called Aviation Gin and decided to continue his Deadpool-like shenanigans by taking it upon himself to advertise it personally. He's done the same for Mint Mobile after acquiring an ownership stake in that company, even getting Rick Moranis out of retirement to appear in an advertisement. Its success led to it being bought by T-Mobile US in 2023; it will continue to operate as a separate brand, with Reynolds still on board. Other companies he promotes includes dating website Match.com, Highkey (a line of sugarless snacks), and Peloton (after he humiliated the company over its "The Gift That Gives Back" ad).
Additionally, he runs a production company called Maximum Effort, through which he produces his more recent projects and campaigns, as well as the short-lived ABC game show Don't, for which he also served as The Announcer. Outside of acting, he and Rob McElhenney are the owners of Wrexham AFC, a Welsh football/soccer club that won England's National League, the highest level of the latter country's non-leaguenote football, in 2022–23, thereby earning promotion to EFL League Two. Their ownership of the club is chronicled in the series Welcome to Wrexham, which premiered in 2022.
He was previously married to Scarlett Johansson and later married Blake Lively, with whom he has four children.
Reynolds was named one of the sexiest men alive in an issue of People magazine, and sometimes contributes to The Huffington Post. He also has a Twitter account
that may serve as proof that he actually IS Deadpool.
Be sure not to confuse him with another Canadian actor who plays a character named Malcolm Reynolds and also used to star in Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. Also, don't confuse him with the anime voice actress Ryan Reynolds, or the other Canadian actor with the same first name.
Selected filmography:
- Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998 - 2001) as Michael "Berg" Bergen
- Finder's Fee (2001) as Quigley
- Van Wilder (2002) as Van Wilder
- Foolproof (2003) as Kevin
- Blade: Trinity (2004) as Hannibal King
- The Amityville Horror (2005) as George Lutz
- Just Friends (2005) as Chris Brander
- Waiting... (2005) as Monty
- Smokin' Aces (2006) as Richard Messner
- Definitely, Maybe (2008) as Will Hayes
- Adventureland (2009) as Mike Connell
- The Proposal (2009) as Andrew Paxton
- Paper Man (2009) as Captain Excellent
- Buried (2010) as Paul Steven Conroy
- Green Lantern (2011) as Hal Jordan / Green Lantern
- The Change-Up (2011) as Mitch Planko
- Family Guy (2011) as himself
- Safe House (2012) as Matt Weston
- The Croods (2013) as Guy (voice)
- The Croods: A New Age (2020)
- R.I.P.D. (2013) as Nick Walker
- Turbo (2013) as Theo / Turbo (voice)
- The Voices (2014) as Jerry Hickfang
- Self/Less (2015) as Damian Hale / Edward Kidner / Mark Bitwell
- Woman in Gold (2015) as Randol Schoenberg
- Criminal (2016) as Bill Pope
- Life (2017) as Rory Adams
- The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) as Michael Bryce
- Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019) as Detective Pikachu (voice); also plays a live-action Walking Spoiler at the endnote
- Hobbs & Shaw (2019) as Agent Lockenote
- 6 Underground (2019) as One
- Free Guy (2021) as Guy
- Red Notice (2021) as Nolan Booth
- The Adam Project (2022) as Adam Reed (Adult)
- Grimace in a 2022 McDonald's Superbowl Commercial note
- Bullet Train (2022) as Carvernote
- Spirited (2022) as Clint Briggs
- Welcome to Wrexham (2022-present) as himself
- IF (2024)
- Stoned Alone (TBA) note
- X-Men Film Series (2009, 2016 — 2018) and Marvel Cinematic Universe (2024 — present) as Wade Wilson / Deadpool
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) note
- Deadpool (2016)
- Deadpool: No Good Deed (2017)
- Deadpool 2 (2018) note
- Once Upon a Deadpool (2018) note
- Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)note
Ryan Reynolds provides examples of:
- Adam Westing: In the ads he creates for Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile, he's taken to playing an exaggerated version of himself that plays up the sardonic charm that had pigeonholed him for many years.
- Affectionate Parody: Most of the ads he stars in for Aviation Gin appear to be this, spoofing infamous pop culture moments and advertising campaigns.
- Alliterative Name: Ryan (Rodney) Reynolds.
- Awesome, Dear Boy:
- His reason for wanting to play Deadpool. He became a fan of the character after he found a comic where Deadpool referenced Reynolds himself while he describes himself. To put it into perspective, Ryan Reynolds had been lobbying for Fox to make a Deadpool movie ever since at least 2005,note even going so far to accept, at the time, a bit part in X-Men Origins: Wolverine just to play him. His wish finally got granted in 2014, when Fox green-lit the movie and cast him as the Merc with the Mouth.
- He's commented that part of the reason he made Free Guy was this; supposedly it's the most creatively enthused he's been with a project since Deadpool.
- His reason for wanting to play Deadpool. He became a fan of the character after he found a comic where Deadpool referenced Reynolds himself while he describes himself. To put it into perspective, Ryan Reynolds had been lobbying for Fox to make a Deadpool movie ever since at least 2005
- Becoming the Mask:
- A joke/theory runs that there is no longer Ryan Reynolds, only Deadpool.
- When he landed the lead role in Pokémon Detective Pikachu, he immediately decided that he was "Detective Pikachu" and began Method Acting at the exclusion of everything else... much to the chagrin of his wife as he left their daughters at school.Ryan: I was on my way to pick up my daughters from school when I heard that I got the role. I didn't show up at school, 'cause Detective Pikachu, he doesn't know who those two little girls are. Who are they?
Blake: They're our daughters. You just left them!
- Character Catchphrase: His comedic characters will often say "Worth It" at some point.
- Deadpan Snarker: Being snarky has become such an integral part of his characters that a good role of thumb is that if his characters aren't saying something sarcastic and witty, it's a pretty good sign that shit just got real.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Gnarly facial prosthetics aside, Reynolds gets crazy ripped◊ for playing Deadpool.
- Fake American:
- Almost every role he plays is this. Most people don't realize he's Canadian.
- He subverts Fake Nationality in the Deadpool films by actually being Canadian. This is something of Actor-Inspired Element; in the comics, Deadpool had been assumed to be American for some time, and even made references to it, but he also had few solid memories of his past. After Reynolds' casting, Deadpool was made Canadian in the comics to nod to him and it's stuck since.
- Friend to All Children: Possibly the weirdest part of the first Deadpool is the number of times children were involved in the promotion. There's that Halloween outing with the kids, and Ryan famously got to know a young terminally ill fan. This may have been the impetus for both Once Upon a Deadpool and taking the lead role in Pokémon Detective Pikachu.
- Handsome Lech: Most of his characters can be described with a quote from Deadpool: "Weirdly charming cockiness."
- I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: He absolutely loves playing Deadpool, and seems to find as many excuses as possible to do so, including voicing Detective Pikachu in a manner that recalls Deadpool so much that fans nicknamed the character Pikapool. He has become so closely associated with the character that his casting survived the X-Men franchise's film reboot after Disney regained the rights, and is set to reprise the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Motor Mouth: His characters are prone to fast-paced tangents and snarky rants.
- Mr. Fanservice: Frequently and not without reason. Even in scary roles: Best Week Ever called the remake of The Amityville Horror starring him "the scariest movie you'll ever masturbate to".
- Older Than They Look: He's in his late 40s, but looks about ten or fifteen years younger.
- Old Shame: His first ever acting role: as geeky drummer Billy Simpson on the short-lived Nickelodeon teen drama Fifteen.
- Parody Assistance: Voiced Deadpool in the Honest Trailers for both his movies.
- Playing Against Type: Quite a few of his roles such as Buried and The Amityville Horror. He can be pretty damn scary when he wants to be.
- Production Posse: Quickly forming one with director Shawn Levy, having already worked together on two movies (Free Guy and The Adam Project) and potentially working together again on a third (The in-development Deadpool 3).
- Promoted Fanboy: He became a comics fanboy roughly the same time that he started playing comic book characters. In fact, the reason he became a fan of Deadpool to begin with is because he found a comic where Deadpool describes himself as looking like "Ryan Reynolds crossed with a Shar-Pei"; he eventually got to portray Deadpool himself in the movies. And after filming was completed, he took the Deadpool suit home with him.
- Product Placement: Played for Laughs in Winnie the Screwed, where he exploits Winnie the Pooh, or more specifically the 1926 version, falling into the Public Domain to advertise Mint Mobile.
- Satan: He's produced a series of ads featuring Satan, including two where Satan falls in love with the Anthropomorphic Personification of the year 2020 for Match.com and another for Mint Mobile where Satan becomes the star employee at a major internet provider who excels at screwing over customers.
- Romance on the Set: With Blake Lively, whom he met on the set of Green Lantern (2011). They are now married and have 3 children.
- Self-Deprecation:
- Especially as Deadpool. Examples include "From five time Academy Award viewer Ryan Reynolds" or "God's perfect idiot◊" in the film's opening credits. Not to mention The Stinger of Deadpool 2, where the eponymous anti-hero travels back in time to murder him before he can appear in Green Lantern (2011).
- Parodied self-serious method actors by releasing a video showing him immersing himself in the character of Detective Pikachu. Blake Lively also appears and points out, among other things, that he didn't change his voice at all for the character.
- Especially as Deadpool. Examples include "From five time Academy Award viewer Ryan Reynolds
- Sitcom Archnemesis:
- Blake Lively, his own wife, with whom he's engaged in vitriolic and downright hilarious Twitter battles.
- Hugh Jackman, whom he (and Deadpool) began trolling after Jackman declined all offers to reprise his role as Wolverine after Logan.
- Those Two Guys: With Jake Gyllenhaal, thanks to their shenanigans during interviews for Life.
- Trolling Creator: A couple of days before Detective Pikachu was released, Reynolds "accidentally" tweeted a YouTube link to the full movie, that after 69 seconds turns into 90-minutes of Detective Pikachu doing aerobics to an 80s synth riff.
- We Used to Be Friends: Was involved in a Real Life example of this after he and Blake Lively had a baby, and someone he'd known since childhood tried to shop around to the tabloids several pictures Reynolds had shared of the newborn. Reynolds managed to prevent it, then told the person that he was never going to see or speak to him again.
- What Could Have Been:
- Before Green Lantern, he was attached to star in a film about The Flash, which has alternatively been reported as either featuring him as the Wally West or Barry Allen versions (Reynolds himself has confirmed a few times Wally is the version he'd wanted to play). Creative differences caused this to fall apart.
- Likewise, Green Lantern was meant to be followed by a film about The Flash that was to form a Shared Universe of DC movies ala the MCU. Green Lantern underperforming prompted these plans to be scuttled and instead, DC used Man of Steel as the start of its shared universe of movies.
