Ryan Reynolds is back in his favourite genre with the buddy comedy Red Notice, co-starring Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot. The Hollywood star talks about the method of his comedic madness, and the popularity of the action-comedy adventure films. The actor also mentioned he is taking a break from films to find inspiration for his creativity again. Excerpts from an interview:
I had a lot of fun watching Red Notice, thanks to your one liners and wisecracks like, in one of the scenes you describe Dwayne Johnson’s head as a huge penis. Can you share with us the method of your comedic madness? Are these lines improvised or they are a part of the script?
(Laughs) That one was really outstanding. I generally try to do five or six, sometimes 10 alternate versions for each joke, I write them out in advance and then I just sort of fire them up. I do some that are clean and family friendly. And then I do some that are somewhere in the middle and then there are others that probably they won’t use but sometimes they end up using it. But in this case, I left it to Rawson to choose. I didn’t produce the movie, but the movies I produce I’m much more hands on with which ones we use and where and how and, but I just sort of left it to Ross and I would give him a whole bunch of options and let him figure out which one he feels is best.
The film is an action-comedy adventure. What according to you makes this genre popular among all age groups?
I don’t know specifically what it is about this genre that makes it popular among all age groups. I mean, a lot of people love action comedy adventures. You know, I personally love treasure hunts, which is part of this movie, Growing up, there are a lot of films like National treasure and Indian Jones series and also Thomas Crown Affair which were really popular and I find this to be exciting. And I believe a lot of people also feel the same.
We see a lot of banter between all the characters. Was the experience of working with Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot as smooth and easy?
There’s a lot there that was left on the sets to do which you see in the film. Most of the time we were just trying to make each other laugh. I was frankly surprised at how many lines ended up in the movie that I wasn’t intending to be. I was just trying to make Dwayne laugh, and make him ruin a take and, you know, delay us. It was a really exceptional experience, because it’s about working with people you know. These are my friends. Dwayne and I have been friends for 21 years. and I have known Gal for a little less than 10 years. So Red Notice was like going to work with your best buddies. And that’s the best way you could possibly go to work and I didn’t take that for granted. I really love that experience.
Initially your character is mischievous and cheeky, but later on in the movie, we get to find out he has more of an emotional backstory to him. So how do you as an actor go about giving depth and dimension to a character like that, who starts out a certain way and ends up another.
I don’t know if there’s really a rhyme or reason to a movie like this. Dwayne myself or Gal, I feel people are looking for our actual dynamic off screen as well to be the same thing on screen. I mean this is literally how we talk to each other when we’re just sitting around. You can’t really experience the pathos aspect of the movie without setting it up properly at the beginning. So you know that stuff is the emotional spine of the movie is always kind of the connective tissue sort of what holds it together. But it’s not the primary focus, I would say that the focus of this kind of movie is the action adventure, swashbuckling, comedic parts. But yes, you need a little bit of that other stuff to kind of hold it together. Now, I do other movies sometimes where the emotional aspect is much more center stage and prevalent and that’s a different kind of work. And that is a different approach. But this is something that I just every single day going to work was just an absolute pleasure. I counted myself so lucky to get to go to work on my buds.
What do you think are the perfect ingredients for a great buddy comedy?
I feel it’s the chemistry more than anything, you have to have great chemistry because if you don’t, you’re kind of screwed. I am so lucky that Dwayne, Gal and I all have good chemistry together. It’s not really something you can invent. I mean, you have actors that aren’t necessarily trying to win in every scene as much as they are trying to play. So Dwayne is very good at listening to scenes and Gal and I both love to do that too. I think that’s why we’re all kind of, we work really well together as we’re as we’re performing.
During an earlier interview, you had mentioned how action and hand to hand combat was more exciting than challenging. How has the working setup on an action film set changed during the pandemic?
There’s a tremendous host of hurdles including something like health hurdles that everyone needs to clear before they can ever even enter a room on a set like this. So the protocols were incredibly strict. I don’t think it’s hyperbole when I say this, but Netflix really set the bar for how to do it in an intensive way, we were one of the first movies ever to come back in the pandemic. So you know, it was a little off putting if you are us, because Dwayne, Gal and I were the only people not wearing a mask on a set because we’re on camera. The protocols were so strict that I wasn’t ever really concerned. We made sure everybody was testing out every day and following every single rule to make sure that we want the set to stay healthy as well. Because if one of us goes down, one of the three of us, the whole movie shuts down and 400 people lose a job. We didn’t want to see ourselves responsible for that so we were very careful.
Every time you come up with a new film, you up your own game. So it feels like you are pretty much competing with yourself. Do you ever feel the pressure?
My next movie that I have coming out is called The Adam Project. And it’s much more like it’s a blockbuster kind of movie, but at the same time it’s a more personal story. It’s far more emotionally grounded than something like this. There’s no kind of intense sarcasm or pop culture references. It’s very specific and it reminded me a lot of like, it was inspired a little bit from movies like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and some of those movies that I used to love as a kid and in its tone, not necessarily the subject matter. I don’t have any pressure. I’m excited to tell different kinds of stories. And I want to work in films that surprise the audience. I think Free Guy was quite surprising for people. And I think The Adam Project will feel like that as well which is also a Netflix film.
Comedy is a genre which is really difficult. But you seem to be comfortable with it. How do you make sure that it is refreshing and doesn’t get boring and not repeat yourself?
I feel you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who works in the genre to not find variations on a theme. You’re always repeating aspects of things and sort of changing it up. But to keep it fresh, it’s mostly about the content, you’re really trying to make sure that I am doing movies that I might find funny. That’s the only kind of barometer I have, I don’t work with someone who would tell me no, don’t do that, or yes, do this, you know, I mostly just have to go it alone and sort of figure it out. Also I’ve mostly used writing as a tool to kind of get myself out of trouble on movies over the last 10 years or so. And that’s been a huge asset of mine. And it’s something I don’t take for granted. I’m really lucky that I’m able to do that. Also, when it’s starting to feel like it’s not quite coming as easily, that’s when you switch gears and try different genres.
Any specific reason that you are taking a break from movies?
I’m taking a sabbatical now and stepping away from film for a while because you need to do that to sort of allow yourself to get creative again and excited again.
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