The Deadpool in Ryan Reynolds

TAIPEI — Ten reasons why, I’m sure, you will laugh yourself to tears while watching Deadpool, the wacky/hilarious/riotous/“twisted” Marvel superhero played with tongue-in-cheek by Ryan Reynolds, the hunk declared by People magazine as “The Sexiest Man Alive” in 2010. As Deadpool, the “Merc with the Mouth” with a twisted sense of humor…

Ryan talks, oftentimes to the audience, from behind a mask without skipping a beat;

Ryan spits out four-letter words without being offensive, in fact making them sound like the sweetest words in the vocabulary;

Ryan mouths quotable quotes (“Looks is everything,” etc.) with a self-deprecating tone;

When Ryan and Morena Baccarin (as the prostitute Ryan meets when he’s his other character Wade Wilson) make love in bed, you hear Neil Sedaka singing Calendar Girl as background;

In a few scenes, Ryan gleefully and playfully bares his butt as if it’s the most casual thing to do for the Sexiest Man Alive (women viewers will certainly fill up the theater with laughter);

In a high-voltage sequence, the violence is tempered by the Chicago’s You’re The Inspiration on the soundtrack;

The opening and closing credits are playfully “cartoonized,” with Careless Whisper as music background;

The love story that intertwines with the crazy plot is so touching, you will shed tears of joy, especially when Ryan and his ladylove make the AlDub heart sign (no kidding!);

Hugh Jackman will have a good laugh towards the end of the movie; and, most important of all;

The movie doesn’t take itself seriously…and so will you!!!

Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, the movie’s production notes remind us that Deadpool (which marks the directorial debut of Tim Miller, co-founder of Blur Studio which specializes in visual effects and animation for motion picture and videogame) tells the origin of former Special Forces operative-turned-mercenary Wade Wilson who, after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down Ajax, the man (played by Ed Skrein, The Transporter Refueled) who nearly destroyed his life.

Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, executive producer (who does a cameo in the movie), says it best: “There’s never been a character like Deadpool and Ryan plays him as though he was born to play the role. Just like Robert Downey Jr. was born to be Iron Man, you just can’t picture anybody else besides Ryan as Deadpool.”

Two weeks ago, Conversations sat down with Ryan (who is the movie’s producer) at a suite of Mandarin Oriental Taipei for a one-on-one. He was so funny that, sometimes “dead-panning,” that it was hard to tell if you were talking to The Sexiest Man Alive or Deadpool.

Thank you for giving us a fun movie.

“Oh, thank you. You are welcome.”

It has a healing effect because, as you know, laughter is the best medicine.

“I agree with you, in the sense that there are so many superhero movies which have been made in the last five or six years and many of them were incredibly serious and sort of sad. It’s a lot of fun to play this kind of character who doesn’t take himself seriously in a movie with the same level of action that the other ones have, if not more. And also, a movie that is just hilarious. That to me was a dream come true. I wanted to do this kind of movie for over 10 years, and to be here now, sitting here talking to you is a great privilege.”

What was your memorable experience doing Deadpool?

“Probably fighting two X-Men.”

How long did it take you to get inside the costume?

“Forty-five minutes to put it on and 10 minutes to take it off.”

What about the prosthetics?

“Four hours if it’s just the face, six if with the arms, and eight if it’s the whole body.”

Didn’t you have a hard time wisecracking from behind the mask?

“No. Somehow the mask makes it easier because you can’t see if I am making faces.”

How, when and why did you fall in love with Deadpool?

“The script was given to me 11 years ago when I was on the set for another film. I read it and I said, ‘This is genius!’ I called the studio and I said, ‘I’d love to do this movie!’ But we just didn’t know how. That process went on for seven more years, until finally they told me, ‘Okay, we’d put him in the Wolverine movie.’ Kind of just introducing him that way. But they got it the wrong way. The character wasn’t meant to be that way. They admitted it now and that’s fine. After that, we were able to make a test for it, uploaded it on the Internet, the fans saw it and went crazy for it. Finally, the studio made the movie the right way.”

Why is the character called Deadpool?

“Because this guy lives in a world in which they run a dead pool, where they leave people to die. Six years ago, in the early draft we kept adding celebrities to the dead pool and they kept really dying.”

Deadpool’s sense of humor is described as “twisted.” What kind of sense of humor do you have?

“I have a very twisted sense of humor. I tend to have a gallows humor. In the worst scenario, I’m usually the one who says the funny thing when I shouldn’t be saying something funny. You know, like in a funeral.”

Out of the blue? Spontaneous?

“Yes, spontaneous. Most of the time, I wish it didn’t happen.”

In character?

“Yeah, kind of.”

Which was harder to do, the action scenes or the bed scenes?

(Laughs and laughs) “Well, you know, the bedroom scenes in movies often look very sexy and very beautiful. But it’s not like that when you are on the set. Imagine this…(referring to those inside the room)…and imagine that’s what it’s like when you’re doing the scenes with so many people watching. That’s very uncomfortable.”

You bared your butt in several scenes. That sort of validated your being one-time The Sexiest Man Alive.

(Laughs some more) “I’ve always laughed at that kind of stuff. But we certainly didn’t spare it in the movie (by showing the cover of People magazine’s “sexiest” issue). My brothers and I talked about it, we laughed about it. It’s so arbitrary and so silly. I mean, who decides who the sexiest man alive is? Do they poll the whole human race for that? I took a lot of s--t from my brothers for that.”

The whole world thinks you are sexy. Do you think you are sexy?

“I don’t know. I think being sexy is being comfortable with a lot of things. Maybe that’s one of the reasons. I’m comfortable being a husband and a father, and all the other things. I think that’s what makes a man sexy.”

With Deadpool’s twisted sense of humor, how do you think he would describe you?

“Oh, he would find me to be a complete prick. He would definitely murder me in terribly creative ways. You know what? Deadpool is the most immature person alive, like a teenager who never grew up. But the content of the movie is definitely not immature and it’s not suited for a five-year-old kid.”

One of Deadpool’s dialogues goes, “Looks is everything.” Is that what you think of yourself?

“I don’t know if that’s a real commentary on who I am but I do always take advantage of the moment to make fun of myself. Deadpool dishes that out to other people and I shouldn’t be excluded from that group.”

In real life, what’s the craziest thing that you have done?

“Oh, nothing could be crazier than entering Hollywood.”

Why?

“Because you are entering a job force in which 99 percent of your colleagues are out of work. Scary! My parents were scared and nervous. They told me, ‘You’re throwing your life away! You can’t go down there and do that. You’ll never know if you’re gonna make it.’ They were discouraging me.”

Have you always wanted to be an actor?

“Yeah, since I was a kid…when I was 13 in Canada. I have always been a movie fan.”

What movie made you realize you wanted to be an actor?

“There’s a lot of them. I love Stand By Me which was one of the first movies that I ever saw. It was Rated-R and my brothers took me to it.”

Which comedians do you admire?

“Growing up, I loved Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. As I got older, I became obsessed with Chevy Chase. I’ve always loved Chevy Chase. He does something very interesting. He comes across like he is an asshole when actually he’s not. He’s one of the few guys who can say something kind of mean but it’s also charming. I really enjoy that about Chevy Chase. I enjoy that he could say the worst thing possible and he can still be likeable. I really draw a lot of my career from Chevy Chase, particularly the dead-pan stuff.”

Have you worked with any Filipino artist?

“I haven’t had the opportunity. I hope to at some point, especially now that they are making big movies in Hollywood. Not just Filipinos but other Asian talents. They should take that idea into consideration because those movies are playing in Asia, including the Philippines.”

Any plans of going to the Philippines maybe to shoot a movie or for a vacation?

“I would love to. I know somebody who just came from the Philippines and he has been telling me wonderful things about the Philippines. I should go there one of these days.”

I’m sure Hugh Jackman will have a good laugh when he watches the movie, especially the ending.

“Oh yes, I’m sure of that.”

You’ve worked with him (in X-Men). How was it?

“He’s a treat to work with. A gentleman, a very kind man. The nicest man alive. Hugh is my good friend. We are neighbors in New York.”

Was it liberating that you have finally done the movie, your dream come true?

“Yeah, it feels good. It’s great and terrible because it’s like when you get a life-long dream come true, then what?”

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