Ryan Reynolds has become one of the most beloved figures in Hollywood through his work as Deadpool. While he is an excellent actor, having starred in several big productions, the actor is better known for his comedy. Fans often joke that he is Deadpool playing the role of Reynolds, and the audience adores the light that he has brought into the industry as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However, the origins of his passion for acting do not come from the place many would think. During an interview, Reynolds talked about why he chose acting as a profession, and he revealed that his family and childhood had a lot to do with why he found comfort in pretending to be someone he was not.
How Did Ryan Reynolds Become Interested in Acting?
Many years ago, Ryan Reynolds gave an interview with WSJ. Style, where he went into great detail about his personal and professional life. He specifically talked about how he found his passion in acting and how his relationship and dynamics with his family were affected by this. It would seem that when he was younger, theater and drama weren’t something called to him.
No, I mean, I always thought I’d end up as in law enforcement like my family, so I didn’t imagine that. Acting was a way to get out of the house. It wasn’t really like a passion when I was a kid. It was something that I was already doing at home to survive.
Instead, it was something that Reynolds used to escape his everyday life. In his early years, the Deadpool actor thought that he was going to get into law enforcement like most of his family. However, he soon began to gain an interest in acting and noticed something tragic; he could use acting jobs as a way to get out of his home.
But as a kid, it was a means to an end. It was just a way to get out of the house. I could but I didn’t necessarily want to. I just knew I could.
Being the youngest in a family full of men seemed to have deeply affected the way Reynolds looked at his family and the world around him. Feeling like a fly on the wall, he often found himself to be an invisible spectator.
That was, until he learned a neat trick very quickly that changed his life; using humor as a coping mechanism.
Ryan Reynolds’ Humor Comes From A Tragic Place
During the interview, Ryan Reynolds talked about the other trait that has made him as famous as he is today. The actor is very well-known for his quick-witted humor, and his jokes always make everyone laugh. Unfortunately, their origin is also a very tragic one. He revealed that when he was younger, he would use jokes and laughter as a way to shift tense environments into positive ones.
Being the jester of his family, he embodied the sad-clown paradox, making his entire world laugh while feeling horrible himself. It made it easier for him to exist around his brothers and his entire family, and he found a way to make himself a crucial part of the household dynamic and defuse situations through humor if there was a need.
You get by on your wits. That’s how you do it. You don’t get by on your fists. It was kind of a rough household. I was less like the youngest brother, and more like a moving target. We’re all super close now, but when we were kids, it was just every day was a new and amazing, messy stabbing death.
When you’re a little kid, and you’re in a house, which sort of feels like when you’re around people that are five men basically, including my brothers and my uncle, who was always around. I often felt like I was walking through some sort of weird, skin-covered forest. These huge people everywhere, and you kind of become hyper-perceptive.
Reynolds mentioned that although things changed drastically in his family when he was younger, he was forced to become aware of every little change in the equilibrium and what it could mean for everyone. Being forced to navigate such an environment, the Deadpool actor could not help but gain some skills simultaneously.
