Despite being enormously famous and beloved for his down-to-earth and exceptionally real nature even as one of the most splendid of actors from Hollywood, Ryan Reynolds has had his fair share of good and bad movies. Although his most recent Deadpool film series has only increased his popularity, there was one film that had made him ‘unhirable’ at one point in his career.
This one film was his 2011 superhero movie Green Lantern, which Reynolds was able to land only with the help of DC Studios. And although it started his romance with his other half aka Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds holds no feelings toward the film except those of regret.
Ryan Reynolds Has No Good Feelings Left For Green Lantern Anymore
Though Ryan Reynolds is one of the most hyped actors in Hollywood now, that wasn’t always the case — especially when he had only just joined the superhero genre in the industry. Yes, we’re talking about his 2011 critically panned film, Green Lantern here, and the Deadpool star agrees.
Appearing in an Actors on Actors episode by Variety, Reynolds shared the same thing. He said:
“I represented the death of the superhero for a while. After Green Lantern, after playing that category, I was pretty much unhirable.”
During another interview with Entertainment Weekly, he explained what exactly went wrong for Green Lantern.
“With Green Lantern, I don’t think anyone ever figured out exactly what it was…It also fell victim to the process in Hollywood, which is like poster first, release date second, script last. At the time, it was a huge opportunity for me, so I was excited to try and take part in it.”
Then there was the problem of not focusing enough on the superhero character.
“There was just too many people spending too much money and when there was a problem rather than say, ‘OK, let’s stop spending on special effects and let’s think about [the] character’. That just never… the thinking was never there to do that…It was not a feeling I wanted to repeat. So I really spent the following years just owning as much as I could, it was the only way to kind of process it.”
Just like that, even though the film helped initiate his romance with the love of his life aka Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds still regrets agreeing to sign up for Green Lantern.
Ryan Reynolds Felt More Comfortable Playing Deadpool
Ryan Reynolds is his biggest critic. Perhaps that is why he even had a scene during the mid-credits of Deadpool 2 where Deadpool travels back in time to find Reynolds and shoot him in the head for reading and even thinking of agreeing to do Green Lantern before saying,
“You’re welcome, Canada.”
That being said, the Free Guy actor feels that his superhero character in Marvel is genuinely relatable to him, considering how he felt more comfortable and at ease playing him. Sharing in the same Actors on Actors episode, he explained:
“It was such a specific kind of tone that they’ve been so registered with me. It was like something that I felt sort of like — if I may be so bold to say — like an alter ego in a weird way. Sort of like I could channel this guy. And I loved it.”
Regardless, it’s great to know that while Green Lantern went down as one of the biggest failures in all of modern Hollywood filmmaking history, Ryan Reynolds finally found his skin in Marvel’s Deadpool.
