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'Try To Not Be a Complete Pile of Shit': Words and Wisdom from Ryan Reynolds' GQ Interview

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | September 21, 2015 |

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | September 21, 2015 |


Ryan Reynolds, who is out promoting Mississippi Grind, gave the kind of interview over on GQ that’s gonna remind folks why we loved him in the first place. He’s honest about his failings, honest about how obnoxious new parents can be, honest about his nervousness and skepticism when it comes to interviews, and honest about his privilege.

Ryan Reynolds has clearly hit the “I refused to micromanage my words” portion of his career, and we’re all the better for it. Here’s the best bits of wit and wisdom from Reynolds, who’ll be out with Deadpool early next year.

On how to be a good parent:

I had some good examples. But I don’t think you really necessarily need examples. You just try to not be a complete pile of shit and just be there for them.

On having to answer for the ridiculous controversy stirred by mommy bloggers when Reynolds didn’t wear his baby front pack correctly.

“Yeah, ‘Can I just make some mistakes and all of you just fuck off?’ Yeah. You want to be able to say that. But you can’t say that. There is almost no community on Earth as intense as the parent-child online community.”

On some “not so great experiences with directors” that may have helped define his career:

“Yes! There have been some hard-earned experiences with respect to that. But I have to take whatever responsibility I have to take, too. I’m not just saying, ‘Oh, it was them’ or ‘They fucked this up.’ I also chose it, you know. There’s my face up there the whole time. I made those choices.”

I just watched Self/less—

“I’m sorry.”

On “Why did you just say ‘I’m sorry’?

“I was mostly just kidding. Because the movie didn’t turn out as well as I think I wanted, or Tarsem wanted. But, you know, at the same time, I can’t speak for them. Maybe it turned out exactly how they wanted it.”

On being nervous about saying the wrong things in interviews.

I can think of probably a dozen times that I’ve jammed both of my feet in my mouth in an interview where I just thought, ‘That was never my intention, to say something about somebody else like that.’ Even now, talking about Tarsem, I’m like, ‘Am I gonna read that and go, oh, that’s offensive to Tarsem?’ I mean, to be perfectly frank, I dread these things, because I really want to, like, relax and just, like, have a conversation, but at the same time, I am a veteran of this gig enough to know that I can’t do that.”

What if Green Lantern had actually been successful? Would that have been a good thing or a bad thing for you?

I mean, I don’t give a rusty fuck, because—I know that this is gonna sound like some sort of guy who’s spent a little bit of time in a monastery or something, but it all led to here. If I had to do it all again, I’d do the exact same thing. You know, also, Green Lantern—you gotta remember, at the time, everyone was gunning for that role. The guys I was screen-testing against are amazing talents. [Reynolds reportedly beat out Bradley Cooper, Justin Timberlake, and Jared Leto for the role.] But would I change it? No! And if it was as big a success, then it might have offered a whole different avenue of opportunities, or maybe I would just be kind of always that guy. I really don’t know.”

On his sympathy for the talented cast of Fantastic Four in the wake of its massive failure:

“I’m more frustrated about the Michael B. Jordan aspect than Miles Teller. You know, Miles Teller’s gonna recover. Miles Teller’s gonna go on to do amazing things, you know. It’s important that Michael B. Jordan continues to go on and do amazing things.”

“I know it’s not easy for a black actor. It’s not easy for a female actor. It’s not easy for a lot of people that are… That entire cast is amazingly talented. And I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. I mean, I know what that feels like. It doesn’t feel good. And it also is difficult, because you don’t feel like you can control that outcome. You know, as much as you want to. You can’t really.”

Read the entire stellar interview over on GQ