After the massive box-office success of Deadpool and Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds is back in the news. He has been a part of several projects spanning multiple genres from superhero movies to romantic dramas. Ryan Reynolds rose to fame with the Deadpool franchise in 2016. However, almost a decade ago, his career graph was very different than it is today.
The Proposal star had to reevaluate his methodology behind choosing his projects and took on films and characters he felt more comfortable playing. Ryan Reynolds played detective Nick Walker in the 2013 American supernatural action drama RIPD. Robert Schwentke’s thriller was based on Peter Lenkov’s book Pest in the Peace Department. Despite being produced on a hefty budget, RIPD bombed at the box office. According to media outlet Box Office Mojo, the Ryan Reynolds-led RIPD grossed only $78.3 million against a production budget of $130–154 million.
However, not many know that Ryan Reynolds was going through the toughest phase in terms of his acting career. One after another, his films failed to make a mark both commercially and critically. After the failure of Green Lantern, The Change-Up and Safe Up, RIPD released in 2013 was the last hope for the Deadpool star.
During an interview with popular media outlet LA Times in 2015, Ryan Reynolds talked about reevaluating the projects he did during the beginning of his acting career. He mentioned that he regrets doing movies only for the monetary aspect. Reynolds believed that he shouldn’t have done movies that failed to make a mark at the box office and even took his career down. He said- “I’ve done movies that I shouldn’t have done because they were the ones who were going to pay me, and that was very tempting and exciting at the time.”
He added, “When you come to Hollywood, and you come from where I come from, you think, ‘Of course I’m going to do this.’ The hardest roles I found were where I had to portray some ideal of masculinity – then I felt a bit fake and awkward. But in comedies like this, I let that go. There was a complete lack of masculinity.”
After RIPD, Ryan Reynolds played Jerry Hickfang, a schizophrenic killer, in The Voice. This crime drama made headlines at the Sundance Film Festival. The Voice received rave reviews from critics and is still considered one of Ryan Reynolds’ best performances.
During the same interview in 2015, The Adam Project actor spoke about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and one of the leading faces of the superhero franchise, Robert Downey Jr. He said-
“Robert Downey Jr. is a leading man,”
Ryan Reynolds opens up about being associated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe
“Yeah, I’ll be the lead in a Marvel movie, but I’ll be scarred from head to toe. It’s not like you’re seeing Ryan Reynolds there.”
Ryan Reynolds admits he wasn’t very careful while choosing projects during his initial days in Hollywood but his fortunes changed completely after he played comic superhero Wade Wilson in the Deadpool franchise.
Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool & Wolverine is currently playing in theaters.
Also read: Zombie Wolverine’s original look in Deadpool and Wolverine was almost changed because of Ryan Reynolds and his ‘fun’ ideas
