Hollywood’s golden boy, Ryan Reynolds, recently opened up about his relationship with Blake Lively, warming our hearts in places we never knew existed.
In an interview with Variety, Ryan said his wife helped him through the pressures of producing and starring in Deadpool, Marvel’s brilliant anti-hero answer to fourth-wall-wrecking mercenary comedic stylings.
Although Deadpool has been nominated for a Golden Globe – the first live-action comic book movie to score a Best Picture nomination in the organisation’s history – and Ryan has received a nomination for Best Actor for his performance, the 40-year-old actor said production wasn’t always so easy-going.
Deadpool’s migration to the silver screen was Reynolds’ 11-year-old brainchild; his passion project.
But with the memories of Green Lantern‘s failure creeping up on him, FOX’s last-minute budget cuts and intensive late-night script editing sessions stunting Ryan’s sleep, the actors’s long-term anxiety peaked.
Vancouver-born Reynolds opened up about his mental health issues, which started in his childhood, saying:
I have three older brothers. Our father was tough. He wasn’t easy on anyone. And he wasn’t easy on himself. I think the anxiety might have started there, trying to find ways to control others by trying to control myself. At the time, I never recognised that. I was just a twitchy kid.
He said that Blake had stuck by him throughout the entire process, as she herself was filming shark-attack film, The Shallows.
He waxed lyrical about his wife, saying:
By the time we were in post, we’d been to Comic-Con, and people went crazy for it. The expectations were eating me alive. Blake helped me through that. I’m lucky to have her around just to keep me sane.
The pair have two young daughters together, named Ines and James, and live in Upstate New York. They are a joyful antidote to other staged Hollywood romances to which we have become accustomed.
Hopefully, Ryan tells Blake how much she means to him every day… while playing Careless Whisper on a boombox, Deadpool style.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.