Ryan Reynolds Multitasks Like a Mofo

In 2011, the first Deadpool was in the early stages of development at 20th Century Fox when DC’s Green Lantern bombed, putting star Ryan Reynolds at risk of landing in actor jail. When another flop ensued, Universal’s R.I.P.D., the Canada-born actor known for hit rom-coms and as People‘s Sexiest Man Alive took his fate into his own hands by claiming full ownership of Deadpool, Hollywood’s first R-rated superhero pic. Some top Fox executives balked at moving ahead — one exception was then-production president Emma Watts — but that all changed when eight minutes of footage shot by director Tim Miller and Reynolds was leaked online. Millions of fanboys went nuts over Reynolds’ outrageously profane Merc With a Mouth.

Almost overnight, the light at Fox went from red to green, but Deadpool‘s producers, with Reynolds at the helm, were still only awarded a $72 million budget, slashed at the eleventh hour to $68 million — a fraction of the $200 million often spent on comic book movies. It didn’t matter. Released in 2016, following an outside-the-box marketing campaign — one billboard featured a skull, a poop emoji and the letter L (Dead-poo-L, get it?) — the movie was a critical and smash hit, becoming the top-grossing R-rated film of all time, with more than $782 million in worldwide ticket sales. “It was pretty clear from the beginning that Ryan is Deadpool and Deadpool is Ryan,” says Watts. “We knew the real challenge wasn’t Ryan — it was the R rating, which we were reminded of constantly.”

Nearly a decade later, the producer-writer-actor, marketing whiz and entrepreneur is at the pinnacle of a multifaceted career. He’s sold several businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars (Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile), helms the production and marketing company Maximum Effort with George Dewey, and bought a Welsh soccer team with Rob McElhenney that birthed hit docuseries Welcome to Wrexham. This year, Deadpool & Wolverine — the franchise is now housed at Marvel Studios following the Disney-Fox merger — earned a franchise-best $1.3 billion globally; it is the No. 2 highest-grossing film of 2024. Co-star Hugh Jackman — whom Reynolds calls his “emotional support movie star” — was the one to introduce his longtime best bud to director and producer Shawn Levy, resulting in a collaboration that led to Free Guy, The Adam Project and the third Deadpool installment.

“I’ve never worked with a producer who is in the shit and making it better every day and in every way throughout the process quite like Ryan,” says Levy. Jackman adds that many assume Reynolds improvises on the spot: “Actually, his superpower is that he’s written five different versions of every scene and he’s writing right up until the minute you’re shooting.” He also advises there’s no point in giving Reynolds a fancy trailer. “He’s never getting in it. He’s going to turn up on set and not going to leave the set because he wants to be in the middle of it,” says Jackson. Veteran assistant director Josh McLaglen, a Levy compatriot whose credits include James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic, sums up Reynolds’ 24/7 work ethic: “If you text, he’ll text you right back.”

After the Disney-Fox merger, Reynolds suddenly had new bosses to answer to. Disney CEO Bob Iger went out of his way to declare that Deadpool would keep its R rating, a first for the 100-year-old, family-friendly studio. Reynolds says he was “very nervous” the first few times he met Marvel chief Kevin Feige, who shares a PGA credit on Deadpool & Wolverine alongside Reynolds and Levy. Says Feige: “He’s an 800-pound gorilla and we are an 800-pound gorilla. I think we were circling each other for a while. But the truth is, we both love the same things: Shawn, Ryan and Hugh’s most successful movie happened when they stepped in to work with us at Marvel Studios.”

Reynolds — THR‘s Producer of the Year — recently conducted several conversations from his homey Tribeca office, not far from the New York City loft he shares with Blake Lively and their four small children when they’re not residing in upstate Pound Ridge. (The only topic Reynolds wouldn’t address when asked was the brouhaha over his wife’s hit 2024 film, It Ends With Us.) He reveals why he’s taking a break from filming , how Boy Band could be his next film and why Deadpool may never be the focus of a solo film again.

Everyone I’ve spoken to says your attention to detail and taking care of everyone on set is a big strength. Why do you think you’re an effective producer?

Because I have skin in the game. I can’t control how someone feels about me, but I think you’d struggle to find someone who cares more. I’m writing and performing, and at the end of the day — at least on a Deadpool film — I’m not going out for a martini; I’m usually opening my laptop and writing or punching stuff up. Before I did it, I wasn’t totally sure what producers did. I’ve worked on films where the producer is more of a social host. Or they’re procuring financing or liaising with agents and managers in order to cast someone. Or they sit in a chair all day purchasing high-end furniture or cocaine online. I know what works for me — knowing when to weigh in, when to hang back and that a good creative atmosphere comes from the top down. If the main producer, director or star is an asshole, you’ll find a lot of assholes all over the place. It’s the oldest line of thinking, but you have to set a tone early and show up with the right attitude. It’s eerily similar to a military operation.

What made you want to become a producer after Green Lantern?

I love that we get to talk about producing, because of all my accomplishments, that’s what I’m most proud of. I could act in big or small movies and if those movies don’t work out, the consequences don’t always fall on the director. Oftentimes, it’s my name associated with the failure. That happened a number of times, and it changed something in me. I’m more passionate about storytelling than I am about acting. If I win, great. If I lose, I get to also feel like I was the architect of my own demise. The first time that happened in the most full-throated way was in producing the first Deadpool. That was where I found my voice. I worked with Denzel Washington years ago — not to name drop — and he said something so wise and simple: “If you don’t trust the pilot, don’t get in the plane.”

What was it like when Deadpool & Wolverine became the top-grossing R-rated movie of all time?

I wish I could say the journey was the reward. But I couldn’t have been more invested in every detail, every piece of marketing. I wrote the goddamn liner notes on the soundtrack, which, now that I say it out loud, sounds genuinely crazy. But I know I work best when it goes beyond working hard and into the land of obsession. I wanted the movie to beat the other two Deadpool films, but doubling the others was a surprise. And a global release involves mind-boggling logistics.

Did anyone at Disney flinch at the “Marvel Jesus” line? It’s one of many industry jokes in the script, including references to the death of 20th Century Fox as we know it.

“Marvel Jesus” didn’t seem to present an issue. If anything, the studio leaned in. I think most people understood the line in the spirit it was intended. The real surprise was how well it seemed to land and how it resonated with people in a moment of perceived strife for Marvel. It felt more audacious given the timing, and felt like self-awareness emanating from MCU headquarters. But it wasn’t really timed to anything. I wrote the line a year or so before it was revealed in the Super Bowl spot. It was in one of the first complete drafts.

I’ve been badgering you about whether we’ll see Deadpool and Wolverine join Avengers 5 or 6. Any updates?

There are no updates to share just yet. But I trust Kevin and [Marvel exec] Lou D’Esposito with my life. The character trait I love most about Deadpool is that he’s a fanboy. His enthusiasm and longing to be part of a team is really endearing to me. It’s his overarching wish-fulfillment story. But I don’t think he should ever be an Avenger or an X-Man. If he becomes either, we’re at the end. 

Does that mean the character won’t ever be in an Avengers film?

Just the opposite! I think Deadpool works so well appearing with the X-Men and Avengers, but he always needs to stay an outsider. His ultimate dream is to be accepted and appreciated. But he can’t be accepted. His coping mechanism of deflecting shame through humor works only when used to pave over his many inadequacies. If and when he does become an Avenger or X-Man, we’re at the end of his journey.

What can you say about another Deadpool & Wolverine movie?

I’ve never been so depressed as the day we locked the last reel of Deadpool & Wolverine. Seeing Shawn every day and Hugh in person or on the screen in the edit bay is one of the best times of my life and a memory palace in my mind that I visit every day. I don’t know what the future holds just yet. I really want to make Boy Band, and I’m still trying to figure out the smartest way to put that together. As for Deadpool & Wolverine, I have some pitches and ideas, but none of them center on Deadpool. He is a great supporting or ensemble player. And I would always want Deadpool and Wolverine to be paired in some way. Centering Deadpool works best if you take everything away from him and put his back against the wall. I can’t really do that again. A fourth time feels a little iterative and redundant. That doesn’t mean sacrificing fun. There is still an arc for Deadpool which is fulfilling and powerful.

Boy Band, which you and Shawn would produce for Paramount, tells the story of former boy band members reuniting as middle-aged men. You’d also co-star, with Hugh in talks to join. Both you and Shawn mentioned that every studio in town reached out in early November about the project, not realizing it has long been set up at Paramount, where Maximum Effort has a first-look deal. Imagine the cameo possibilities!

I’m on a second draft. The first draft was incredible and written by one of my favorite writers, Jesse Andrews [Me and Earl and the Dying Girl]. Now I’m on my lonesome. There are no dates or anything just yet. I’m not filming anything for at least a year. This feels like it needs to have an extremely modest budget, and one that wouldn’t be all about going to pay above-the-line actors. Shawn, Hugh and I are open to creative ways to make this movie at an absolute bargain. A lot of members of boy bands — and there are a lot of them — had managers who left them high and dry. They experienced levels of fame that would be very difficult for anyone to navigate, let alone an adolescent, when you are farming out your self-worth to an audience of screaming people. It creates a kind of arrested cultural development. They’re forever associated with that period of time in their lives. This would be about people in their 40s and 50s trying to get their lives back. I think there is something beautiful about that. The north star for me as a producer is joy. I feel like cynicism is a contracting industry, and doesn’t have a great shelf life.

You and your wife are very close to Taylor Swift. Does watching her concerts provide research?

Research? There’s no comp for that. It’s a thing to witness. I told Taylor a while ago that I wish she had the opportunity to watch herself from the audience, even for a moment.

When the first Deadpool came out, I heard again and again from executives at Fox what a leading role you played in selling the film. What draws you to the marketing part of it all?

I think of marketing so much differently than I did before Deadpool. I mostly thought of it as a strange, creative exercise used to drum up excitement for a film. Now I see it as a strange, creative exercise used to acknowledge, play or hijack the cultural landscape in smart, fun and unexpected ways. What used to be an obligation is now one of my favorite parts of the process. You have an opportunity to frame expectation, then subvert it. I love watching it done well, and I love seeing what other companies besides my own create.

Maximum Effort’s ads are famous for going viral, like “Jake From State Farm.” In less than 48 hours — and with the blessing of Taylor Swift — you and Dewey arranged for the character to be filmed in Jason Kelce’s family suite during a Philadelphia Eagles Game in a nod to the sensation prompted days earlier when Swift showed up to support her new boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce, Jason’s brother. What do you love about this process?

There’s nothing better than cold-calling a Fortune 500 company with an idea. Ads should be fun. And speed matters. The biggest issue with marketing and ad generation is overthinking and overspending. It’s a fucking commercial, not “In Memoriam” at the Oscars. Don’t be afraid of greatness. Don’t be afraid of sucking. They’re both a small detail away from each other.

The moment SAG ended its strike late on a Sunday, you rushed to get back on the Deadpool set, which had been shut down for months.

When we were given the all clear to return to work, the biggest challenge was maintaining a schedule that had been planned around summer’s daylight hours. We went from 12 to 13 hours of daylight to six and a half or seven usable hours per day. That is a squeeze I do not miss at all, particularly around the surprise guests in the film: Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Garner, Chis Evans and Channing Tatum. We only had these actors for incredibly brief spells which were a nightmare even with summer’s extended hours. So to go to seven hours really hurt. Josh [McLaglen] navigated this in a way that made it look easy. And the post was accelerated at an alarming rate. Many of the days, I was editing with Shawn while I was still wearing the Deadpool suit.

During the strike, I know that you, as a producer, were very concerned for all the below-the-line people who suddenly had no income. Did the strike have to go on so long, in your opinion?

I can’t really say. The fog of war is different for everyone. But I was incredibly worried because crewmembers are the people I’ve known longest in the industry. The young actors I came up with are mostly gone — some of whom unfortunately passed, some were really hurt by the industry’s obvious pitfalls and others just found their way back to their hometown. But crewmembers and many of the working-class actors are a constant presence in the business.

Recently, social media erupted over your neighbor Martha Stewart saying you weren’t funny. Were your feelings hurt?

If you can’t take a punch in this business, you’re in trouble. But why would people ever assume the way they see you on camera is how you’re going to be in real life? Right? You’re just a person. But I do it, too. I’m a fan of people and I love certain people’s work, and I’m thinking when I meet them, I want to see little glimpses of that.

I don’t think what happened was designed to hurt anyone. That was just an incredibly valid observation that someone made. Lots of people would say I’m very serious if they met me. I can’t imagine entering any room in which I don’t intimately know the people, where I suddenly kind of turn on and perform.

I’ve always been one to be very quiet, and part of that is anxiety I’ve carried with me since I was a kid. And at times it’s very normal for anyone and everyone to experience anxiety. Some people’s anxiety, and I include mine, has a tendency to go down a slippery slope that needs to be managed to some degree. I grew up with a man, my father, Jim Reynolds, who would not say a word about anything that touched on vulnerability. But yes, I’ve always been much more shy around people that I don’t know unless I’m stepping out on a stage.

Were you happy to be a Canadian, and not an American, when Trump was elected to a second term?

I know there’s a huge fracture, and not just in the United States, but in a lot of countries. There’s a real growing chasm between left and right. I’ve always been proud of being Canadian. I feel like Canada’s one of my parents. It taught me some core values that have come in handy weekly, if not daily, since I left home when I was 18 or 19 years old.

Does Trump living in the White House again make you and Blake think about moving to Canada?

No. It hasn’t even crossed our minds. I love New York, and I love where I live.

Are you concerned about a Trump presidency stifling the arts?

Of course. I worry about any art form where a majority of the demographic of folks involved with that art form didn’t necessarily vote for the current administration, and that the administration might view them as people to sanction. The thought of the entire business — film, television, any of it — experiencing any form of censorship is frightening, and should be frightening.

You’re producing a documentary for Amazon MGM Studios on John Candy. We’ve spoken a lot about your love of great comedians and how they are seemingly overlooked, particularly during awards season.

Many times comedians are recognized either posthumously or they’re paraded out on the stage and given a special award when they’re 100 years old or older. I always wish that comedy was recognized more forthrightly in awards in every way, shape and form. It’s such a difficult trade.

You and Blake have kept your four children from the public’s eye. How have you accomplished that?

We try to give them as normal a life as possible. I try not to impose upon them the difference in their childhood to my childhood or my wife’s childhood. We both grew up very working class, and I remember when they were very young, I used to say or think, like, “Oh God, I would never have had a gift like this when I was a kid,” or, “I never would’ve had this luxury of getting takeout,” or whatever. Then I realized that that’s not really their bag of rocks to carry. They’re already very much in touch with gratitude and understanding the world enough to have a strong sense of empathy. Those are the things that I would think [would indicate] we’re doing an OK job — if our kids can empathize with other people and other kids. But yes, it’s different. When I was a kid, you would just suck it up, get out of the house and be back by sundown, which I just can’t even imagine now.

Social media went nuts over the news that both of you will be taking a break from filming after such a hectic couple of years.

Well, I’m still working in the sense that I’m writing, whether on Boy Band or another thing I can’t talk about yet. I don’t have an “idle hands are the devil’s plaything” issue. If I’m not working, I don’t yearn for it constantly. Boredom is a very undervalued asset these days, too. We as a society just entertain ourselves to death 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The best ideas that I’ve ever had have always been born of boredom, where your mind is allowed to wander and go into that sort of stasis of being and not doing. You get weird thoughts that pop in and turn into ideas. And so if I’m not working, I look at that as a different form of work.

You and Rob McElhenney recently sold stakes in your Welsh football club, Wrexham AFC, to the upstate New York-based Allyn family, which will provide more than $600 million in capital to continue revitalizing Wrexham, the town. Are you pulling back on your involvement?

No, we will remain minority owners. The team is growing faster than anyone expected. There are needs that require a certain type of skill and people who have some experience in growing things. We chose the Allyn family because they have similar values that make Wrexham. They’ve been revitalizing towns and communities for many years in upstate New York, and that’s why bringing them on didn’t cause a big stir.

Would you say that producing a movie and running a business require a similar skill set?

I don’t pretend to be an inventor or an entrepreneur or any of those things. But I’m a storyteller and can wear different hats. I can be a salesman, I can be an accountant, any number of things. But it’s all creating emotional investment. If you can create emotional investment in anything, any brand, it creates a moat around that brand that really, I think, facilitates resilience and allows it to weather the storms in bad times. And yes, that’s the part I love.

A version of this story appeared in the Dec. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.