Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds has written a pretty large check for himself, but luckily his ass can cash it. In a chat with GQ, this year’s Man of the Year went into just how much of his life and soul he’s put into Deadpool and that he feels it’s put him on par with some of the artists and writers who’ve brought the character to life.
“I’ve also been with this thing the longest out of anybody, aside from the guys that wrote the comics. Eleven years I’ve been trying to get this Sisyphus rock up the hill, and it kept rolling back on top of me. So I’m gonna be all the fuck over it from the moment it starts to the moment it finishes,” Reynolds said.
That might sound like a lot of boasting, but Reynolds has earned the cred. He wrote all of Wade Wilson’s pre-sewn mouth dialogue for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, because of the 2007 writers’ strike, and he begged Fox repeatedly to pursue a Deadpool solo movie even though he said they “kept telling us to go fuck ourselves sterile.” He even called them before taking the lead role in The Green Lantern, to give them one last chance to change their minds.
Reynolds noted that the movie had continual financial problems, because Fox gave them the bare minimum in terms of a budget (and only because the leaked test footage performed so well). He even said a couple of the movie’s more memorable moments were because of actual budgetary problems, rather than Deadpool’s signature comedic style.
“There’s two moments of the movie where I forget my ammo bag. That’s not because Deadpool’s forgetful. That’s because we couldn’t afford the guns that we were about to use in the scene,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds might still sound like he’s bragging a bit, but given all he’s done to bring Deadpool to life, it seems like he’s earned it. With Tim Miller leaving the sequel over “creative differences” with the actor and producer, it seems like Reynolds needs the support more than ever. And luckily, it looks like we’ll see more of him soon with the planned X-Men reboot … with more Deadpool.
