Ryan Reynolds fought his way to “Deadpool” stardom

Peter Howell

Movie Critic

Time was, more than a decade ago, when B.C. native Ryan Reynolds was known only for his big mouth. In movies like “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder” and “Waiting…” he was the cerebral smartass with the lethal tongue.

Lately he’s also been showing us more of his considerable physical prowess as well, playing superhuman types in his current hit “Deadpool & Wolverine” — which just reached $1 billion in global ticket sales — and earlier in two other “Deadpool” films plus “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Green Lantern.”

He was very much a work in progress, and determined to become an A-list star, when I interviewed him at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival about “Buried,” a Sundance thriller directed by Spain’s Rodrigo Cortés.

In the film Reynolds, then 33, plays U.S. civil trucker Paul Conroy, who is captured in Iraq by insurgents who leave him to die in a buried coffin.

Time is running out for Conroy, but certainly not for Reynolds’ career, which couldn’t be hotter. He’s also courted rom-com acclaim opposite Sandra Bullock in “The Proposal,” although that side of his career has almost been forgotten thanks to the “Deadpool” franchise.

Q: You used to be thought of as a wise guy. Now you’re becoming more of an action man. Does this suit you?

A: I like that I am in a climate where I can defy some categorization, I hope. . . . If I have any goal that I set out for myself, I guess it’s sort of that.

Q: Are you aware of how people are seeing you in a different light?

A: I think the fact that I’m still around has connected more with me than anything else. I’ve had a very inch-by-inch type of career. It’s been a slow build and I’ve had a lot of valleys and a lot of peaks as well.

Q: It’s not going slow now.

A: No, it’s great. I won’t complain. It’s been an amazing year. Just in terms of diversity, I’ve been really lucky to get to do some stuff that’s a little different.

Q: You’ve managed to stay buff ever since you bulked up for Blade: Trinity in 2005.

A: Oh, Peter. No. I really haven’t! (laughs) . . . I always exercise but there’s a difference. There’s “exercise” and then there’s something that’s just kind of a manic, nauseating behaviour.

Q: You could almost call Paul Conroy a superhero. He’s incredibly resourceful.

A: He is, but, I mean, Paul Conroy is not Spider-Man or Jack Bauer. He’s a working-class guy who’s been given some limited tools to extricate himself from a crazy situation. . . . What I liked about Paul, and this is something that Rodrigo and I talked early on about, was creating layers of unlikeability.

It was creating moments that say, “This is a guy who might rub me the wrong way if I was in a bar with him,” but the human condition is that we empathize with him. We can’t help it. We can’t help but put ourselves in that position, so, no matter what, those were just elements to add realism to the character.

Q: Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, also at TIFF, has a similar kind of dynamic, of one man fighting an incredible physical challenge.

A: It’s a great story. I can’t wait to see it. I love that there’s this kind of theme of isolation. Even though the movies are very different, there’s a sort of universal theme of isolation in those two films.

(Originally published in the Toronto Star.)