- Ryan, congratulations, man.
This movie is hugely entertaining.
You should feel very proud.
How are you feeling now?
Because you've been through all sorts
of levels of success and disappointment over the years.
Do you know when, like, it's clicking?
Like, at this point, do you feel it in your bones, like,
"Yeah, we made it to the finish line.
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- No, I don't. [Laughs]
I mean, I don't pretend to be an expert
on any of that stuff.
I love what I do.
I love telling stories.
I mean, this is a unique opportunity
to put up a huge tentpole summer blockbuster,
but one that's an original.
And that's an increasingly rare opportunity these days.
Most things are obviously based on comic books,
and IPs, and sequels.
All things that I love and are also my bread and butter.
But at the end of the day,
having an opportunity to do something like 'Free Guy,'
which hits hard, comedically, in an action sense,
and emotionally,
man, that just doesn't come along that often.
And I don't know anything
about why some things work and why some things don't,
but this movie is easily my favorite movie
that I've ever had out in the marketplace.
So, I'm pretty excited about it.
- Talk to me a little bit about playing Guy,
because I haven't seen you play
this kind of a character before.
It's a far cry from Deadpool, obviously,
who's acerbic and cynical.
Guy is the other end of the spectrum.
He's gee whiz, he's open-hearted.
Does that come as naturally to you?
Is it as rewarding and fun to play Guy
as it is Wade Wilson?
- Oh, for sure.
I mean, ironically, they have a lot more in common
than you would think.
I mean, being acerbic and subversive like Deadpool,
and weird in certain contexts,
it avails you to say and do things
that are so inappropriate.
But the same could be said for somebody
who's just a complete innocent and naive.
You get to sort of walk right into trouble
in ways that you wouldn't expect.
So, they're more similar than I think one might realize.
- It kind of alludes to another thing I was thinking about,
which is, like, you know, I'm watching this movie
and again, it works just on every level,
but it's also about some pretty heady stuff.
I mean, it's about free will.
It's about, it's, like,
is this your way of telling us
that you think we're living in a simulation, Ryan?
Where do you stand
[Laughs]
on the issue?
- By the way, I know it's a hotly contested debate,
the simulation thing.
I have no idea if we're living in a simulation.
If we are, that's fricking terrifying.
But there are themes that we explore
that I think are quite resonant
and relevant to everything that we see today.
I mean, the whole reason the movie got made
was both Shawn [Levy] and I had been hoping to work together
for a long time.
We had a couple of near misses.
This came along and it just felt like such an antidote
to everything you're seeing
in the constant news cycle that is just doom and gloom.
And just the whole movie felt like a fastball of joy.
I just really was desperate to make a movie
that allowed audiences to walk out of a theater,
smiling and with a skip in their step.
And you can smuggle themes
that are really resonant and important into works like that.
It's not easy, but you do it.
And that's, I think, those are the connected tissues
that sort of make the movie
something you wanna revisit over and over again.
It's the emotional stuff that pulls you back in.
- Where do you come down on the controversial subject
of interspecies relationships,
i.e., a real-life character
maybe making out,
having relations with a video-game character?
I mean, I remember back in my day,
it was, like, Jessica Rabbit.
Am I allowed to have feelings for Jessica Rabbit?
- Right, right, and yes, I think you are allowed
to have feelings with Jessica Rabbit.
I don't think you're gonna have a significant
and rewarding relationship with Jessica Rabbit,
but, no, I think it's something we explore in the movie.
It actually is kind of - sows the seeds
for some pretty big comedic set pieces in our movie.
You know, my character isn't fully aware,
for a big chunk of the movie,
that he is in fact, an NPC,
or a background character in a video game.
He sort of realizes that he's growing in weird ways
and wants things that he didn't want previously.
So yeah, he falls in love with Millie,
who's played by Jodie Comer in the movie,
or Molotov Girl, in the in-game part,
and really wants to spend the rest of his life with her.
And for a wide variety of reasons,
realizes it's not that easy.
- There's another character you play in this
that is immediately one of my favorites
that you've ever played Dude,
who must have just been fantastically cathartic to play.
If I were a 14-year old boy
seeing this movie for the first time,
I would be screaming "catchphrase" for the rest of the year.
That would be, like, my mantra.
- I think that was a Taika [Waititi] ad-lib.
Dude's a late entry.
I mean, really, it was, - Yeah?
- yeah. I mean, there's a great expression of,
listen to your movie, it'll speak to you.
And Shawn [Levy] and I would be traveling back and forth
on the trains from New York to Boston.
We were commuting while making the movie.
And we would do rewrites sitting on the train,
both of our laptops opposite each other.
Dude was someone who we put in the movie
after we'd already started shooting, actually,
just because we needed somebody tangible
for my character to fight.
Because the big bad boss is Taika's character
who lives in the real world,
there's no reason I would ever get
to square off against him.
So, we conceived of Dude,
and we thought, we just were so happy
with how that turned out.
To get to fight an upgraded version of myself
with just all muscle, teeth, and highlights,
was pretty unique and special, so.
- There are a lot of cool cameos and references in the film.
I'm not gonna ruin the fun surprises in it,
but fair to say,
there are references at least to the MCU,
to 'Star Wars,' at least references.
Did you grow up, like, wanting to be both a superhero
and a Jedi?
You're in the MCU,
you're not quite a Jedi yet,
but did you dream of those kinds of things as a kid?
- For sure, what kid doesn't?
I mean, you know, I grew up watching 'Indiana Jones'
and 'Star Wars' and all these movies
that took you completely out of your own reality.
And, you know, I would spend hours and hours every day
just living in my head as those characters.
So, those things are really meaningful to me.
And the fact that Disney owns 20th Century Studios,
which is the studio that initially made 'Free Guy,'
availed us to things that we would not,
under any other circumstances, have available to us.
- It's amazing, it's amazing. So, is there a chance
at some point down the road,
it's a long career, the Jedi days are not behind you.
There are 18,000 Disney+ 'Star Wars' shows.
Is it a secret dream
or not-so-secret dream still to be playing in 'Star Wars?'
- Yeah, I mean, I feel like that box
gets ticked for me just watching those movies.
I'm such a fan of those movies.
You know, as I've gotten older,
I realized that I don't have to do everything
in order to experience it.
You know, you can just be a fan.
So, and that's exactly what I am.
I am a fan of 'Star Wars.'
I have no sort of,
I don't wake up in the morning thinking,
"How do I get myself in a 'Star Wars' movie?"
You know, I would definitely play a Storm Trooper
if asked,
in the deep background, done.
But anything else is,
yeah, it's all just gravy.
I'm just lucky to be a working actor.
- Well, speaking of that, I'm curious,
I assume by now your audition days are behind you,
but I'm always curious
when an actor gets to a certain level,
like, did you know when you were doing your last audition?
Like, at the time you were like,
"This might be the last one I ever have to do?"
- No, and it's funny that you say that
'cause I just experienced that.
I can only kind of map that onto my personal life
with my kids,
where it's like, my oldest daughter is six.
You know, she's getting a little bit bigger.
I've done a lot of stunts in my day
and I have a pretty bad neck.
And I remember thinking,
"God, I don't know when the last time was
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So, I try to do that now where I kinda think,
"OK, well, if this is the last time
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I remember I picked up my daughter
and I put her on my shoulders
despite my neck begging to not do it,
just so I knew when the last time was.
I was like, "I'm gonna know,
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Yeah, walking on the pier at this,
yeah. So, I don't know when,
I couldn't even tell you what my last audition was.
I don't even know.
That's an uptown problem, by the way.
I realized as I said it, way uptown problem.
- I'm curious, I mean, I was looking back
at the many conversations we've had over the years.
I think the first time we chatted
was 14 years ago, Sundance,
it was for 'The Nines.'
Elle Fanning, I think was, like, an embryo
sitting next to you.
When you look back at, like, the ups and downs,
when you take these moments
to, kind of, have some perspective,
are the ups and the downs kind of easier to manage
with a little bit more perspective?
Did you take it more to heart 10 years ago
or 12 years ago?
I'm talking career stuff and, like, things that, like,
again, with the best of intentions,
don't click and stuff that even exceeds your expectations.
- No, look, I know it sounds like
a completely like [bleep] head, kind of, canned answer,
but I always felt lucky that I got to work in this business.
I mean, my highest expectation
when I moved to Los Angeles as a late teenager,
I was 19 or 20, was to be in Groundlings.
That was what I really wanted to do.
I wanted to do improv comedy in Groundlings.
And then, hopefully, the empyrean heights for me
would be that I was a wacky neighbor on a sitcom
or something like that,
where I had a steady job working at something I love.
And so, you know, my expectations have always
been quite minimal.
So, exceeding the expectations
has always felt really awesome, you know?
And so, I can't say I've ever thought,
"Oh, this sucks.
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Or if a movie didn't work for whatever,
a variety of reasons, I didn't think like,
"Oh, well that's just unfair," or something,
that's just a stupid way of looking at it.
I love, I'm very lucky to get to do what I do.
You know, I know a lot of people
who don't get to do what they love, you know?
So, I try not to take it for granted.
- And the last thing for you.
I know you're in the middle of shooting
with one of my favorite human beings
on the planet, Will Ferrell.
This sounds awesome.
This is a big holiday musical.
[Laughs]
Has Hugh Jackman given you tips on singing?
Are you gonna out-sing Hugh?
What can we expect of Ryan Reynolds,
full-on song-and-dance man in this movie?
- Well, I don't try to compete with Hugh in that arena.
He has decades of experience,
but I did get some tips from him.
He was actually very, very helpful
in sort of figuring out how to do this,
mostly because I was nervy about it.
You know, doing something that new
and that different at this stage in my career and life
was scary, but thankfully,
I have a partner in Will Ferrell
who feels the same way.
So, you know, we've been in dance camp
and singing camp together for months.
We are now finally shooting the movie
and it's been nothing but a blast.
It's been just so truly amazing.