To be fair, Ryan Reynolds has never spoken poorly of his colleagues. He has described Jennifer Garner as one of his “favorite performers” and “favorite people.” He even went so far as to dance and sing on screen just to have the opportunity to work with Will Ferrell, someone he has admired throughout his career. “It was a very elaborate excuse to get to work with somebody I’ve admired my whole career, which is Will Ferrell,” he told Vogue Singapore while promoting their holiday movie “Spirited.”
Although Taylor Swift isn’t exactly a co-star—more like Blake Lively’s best friend—Reynolds still took the time to praise her. “I don’t understand the unimaginable work, care, talent, and discipline @taylorswift puts in to create an experience like this because I’m not a scientist,” he wrote on Instagram after attending a stop on “The Eras Tour.”
While Reynolds is generous with his compliments, some of his peers have not reciprocated—at least not initially. Some co-stars laud his work, while others have shown less enthusiasm about collaborating with him. Here’s what they had to say.
Matthew Lawrence said that Ryan was difficult to work with
Hollywood is no stranger to on-set drama, but if there’s one actor you wouldn’t expect to have beef with producers, it’s Ryan Reynolds. With his charming, self-deprecating humor and “nice guy” image, the idea of him being a pain to work with feels almost unthinkable. Almost. According to “Boy Meets World” alum Matthew Lawrence, early-career Reynolds was kind of a mess. Lawrence, who worked with Reynolds on the 1998 film “Boltneck,” recalled on the “Brotherly Love Podcast” that the now-superstar was a “total schlub” on set.
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“The production team was having a really hard time with Ryan. And this is young Ryan,” Lawrence recalled. “I had grown up in the industry, so I knew my way around the set by that point. I was dialed in. He wasn’t.” Apparently, young Reynolds was trying way too hard, to the point where he was basically doing a “bad Jim Carrey impersonation.” And, surprise — producers weren’t thrilled.
“You can’t impersonate somebody, you gotta do your own thing,” the producers apparently told Reynolds. “And he got upset at that, and he was like, ‘I’m doing my thing.'” Even the director wasn’t convinced, and at one point, some believed Reynolds wouldn’t last in Hollywood. Of course, that prediction couldn’t have been more wrong. Now one of the industry’s biggest stars, Reynolds has built a career on the very comedic style he was experimenting with back then. And Lawrence can’t help but find the whole thing funny. “I’m not even mad at Ryan in the sense that he actually stayed true to who he truly is authentically … he was trying to Deadpool it,” he added. “He obviously matured as a human being, but he was doing the same thing. That’s always been his schtick.”
T.J. Miller claimed that Ryan was ‘mean’ to him on set
Ryan Reynolds wouldn’t have become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars if he’d made a habit of clashing with co-stars. But according to his “Deadpool” co-star T.J. Miller, Reynolds wasn’t exactly a delight to work with on the very film that cemented his A-list status.
During an episode of “The Adam Carolla Show,” Miller claimed Reynolds once requested a scene retake — just so he could humiliate him in front of the entire crew. “As the character, he was horrifically mean to me. But to me. As if I’m Weasel,” Miller explained. “He was like, ‘You know what’s great about you, Weasel? You’re not the star, but you do just enough exposition that it’s funny, and then we can leave and get back to the real movie’ … I just kind of listened and thought it was weird.” Miller was clearly taken aback, and he apparently wasn’t the only person on the set who felt that way.
Despite the awkwardness, Miller insists there’s no bad blood — he just has zero interest in working with Reynolds again in the future. “I’m not funnier than he is at all, right? And I haven’t been in more movies than him,” he continued. “I would not work with him again. … I sorta wish him well because he’s so good at ‘Deadpool.'” Then again, he changed his stance some years later, saying that when the story made rounds online, it was Reynolds who reached out to him to apologize. “It was very cool for him to say, ‘Hey, I just heard on the show that you were upset about this,'” he shared in a SiriusXM’s “Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show” guest appearance. “We sort of just hashed it out really quickly.”
Wesley Snipes didn’t like working with Ryan in the beginning, either
Fans went feral when Wesley Snipes made a surprise cameo in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” sharing the screen with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. But no one would have seen that coming if Snipes and Reynolds were still at odds like they used to be. Back when they filmed “Blade: Trinity,” Snipes was so deep in character that he reportedly refused to interact with anyone as himself — including Reynolds, who, unsurprisingly, took it as an opportunity to mess with him.
“A lot of the lines that Ryan Reynolds has were just a result of Wesley not being there,” comedian Patton Oswalt shared with AV Club. “We would all just think of things for him to say and then cut to Wesley’s face not doing anything because that’s all we could get from him. It was kind of funny. We were like, ‘What are the worst jokes and puns that we can say to this guy?'”
But despite all the behind-the-scenes antics, Snipes later shrugged off the so-called feud, chalking it up to his commitment to method acting. And if he truly hated Reynolds, he certainly wouldn’t have suited up as Blade again. “It was a call, ” Snipes told Entertainment Weekly of his return years later. “It started with a text from Ryan Reynolds, and I saw a text, and it says, ‘I want to talk to you.’ And I was like, ‘I hate this guy.’ That’s a joke. We’ve been playing this for, like, two decades. We’ve actually liked each other the whole time!”
But there are also stars like Hugh Jackman who adored him
Ryan Reynolds has had his fair share of on-set clashes, but if there’s one Hollywood bromance that’s stood the test of time, it’s Reynolds’ relationship with Hugh Jackman. The two are practically inseparable now, but it wasn’t always that way — Jackman admitted he initially gave his “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” co-star a hard time, all because of, get this: Reynolds’ marriage to Scarlett Johansson.
“I met him back on Wolverine, and I used to ream him because I was very close friends with Scarlett, and Scarlett had just married Ryan, so when he came on set I was like, ‘Hey, you better be on your best behavior here, pal, because I’m watching,'” Jackman told the Daily Beast. “And we started ribbing each other that way, and then it all escalated with the Deadpool thing and him calling me out, and trying to manipulate me through social media to do what he wanted.”
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But despite the relentless trolling (which still hasn’t stopped, by the way), Jackman insists their friendship is the real deal. “Every day on set, I laughed until I cried,” he shared with Marvel of their time working together. “There’s so many times he would do things that I didn’t expect. What burns with me in Ryan’s performance is the humanity. Obviously, he’s funny. He’s subversive. The character deflects all the time. But when he opens up, when you see what’s happening in those eyes or in his voice, it’s everything. He’s a brilliant, brilliant actor, and he cares so much about the character that he wants to show all sides perfectly.”
Sandra Bullock also had lots of nice things to say about Ryan
Ryan Reynolds’ ultimate love team is, without question, his wife, Blake Lively. But before they became Hollywood’s golden couple, there were plenty of rumors about Reynolds and his “The Proposal” co-star Sandra Bullock. Fans were convinced the on-screen chemistry translated off-screen, but Bullock was quick to shut that down — though she only had glowing things to say about Reynolds. “I think there will be a collective sigh amongst women across the United States when I say he’s not my lover. He’s just an amazing friend that I’ve had for 10 years,” she told Al Roker at the 2011 Golden Globes, per NBC News, adding that her son, Louis, is the sole man in her life, and really, “all I can handle.” Bullock does, however, have two children now.
Over a decade later, their friendship is still going strong. Bullock even praised Reynolds for keeping it together during their very memorable naked scene in the film. “Ryan was just so cool. Unflappable. He is absolutely unflappable,” she shared in an “About Last Night Podcast with Adam Ray” episode. Reynolds, for his part, continues to hold out hope for another project with Bullock. “There is nobody in this business that can compare to Sandra Bullock. She’s singular. Not just on screen, but off,” he told Deadline, adding, “[She’s] a person that is just so ubiquitously respected but also kind. And I would do anything, anything with Sandy.”
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