Some actors take their craft very seriously and take personal offence to any suggestion that whoever they’re talking to doesn’t feel the same. Ryan Reynolds is not one such person, though, having displayed a willingness to laugh at himself and the less than stellar receptions of some of his movies, chief amongst them the notorious misfire that is Green Lantern.
The Emerald Knight’s first live-action outing was made in 2011, not long before DC began trying – and largely failing – to copy Marvel’s template for the MCU, and is now chiefly remembered as a blueprint for how to do a superhero film really badly. Its thin plot, mostly driven by expository dialogue, is stretched out for almost two and half hours, while a nigh-constant barrage of visual effects don’t make up for the shortcomings of its narrative and characterization.
While on the press circuit promoting Free Guy, Reynolds elaborated on why he makes fun of the production despite having been a part of it, explaining:
“I wrote it into the Deadpool script, I think where my character says something like, ‘Please don’t make this suit green or animated,’ when he’s being shoved into the superhero factory. And I noticed that it felt good to shine a light on that for a second. So I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve always done, but the most significant thing that’s ever happened in my career is laughing at myself. Like, since the start of the work. And there’s plenty there to laugh at. Everybody has their own, you lay in bed at night and you think, ‘Oh God, this thing I did was so awful or silly or ridiculous.’ I think that’s got this fuel for lots of stuff.”
The panel also saw Reynolds and Free Guy co-star Taika Waititi reference the upcoming film as being their first time working together, intentionally disregarding their having both been in Green Lantern, with the latter playing Thomas Kalmaku, an Inuit aerospace engineer and Hal Jordan’s best friend.
Of course, as well as keeping himself grounded, the production of Green Lantern was also where Reynolds met his now-wife Blake Lively, who co-starred as the future Star Sapphire Carol Ferris. So, harboring full-on resentment for an experience that essentially brought them together would require some mental gymnastics that he clearly isn’t going to attempt.
Tell us, though, do you think the DC film is as bad as its reputation makes it out to be? As always, let us know down below.