Reynolds on his training adventures for Green Lantern

MANILA, Philippines - Ryan Reynolds has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most sought after leading men, especially after two recent hit projects that surpassed the $300M mark at the global box-office — the romantic comedy The Proposal opposite Sandra Bullock, and the fantasy-adventure X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in the role of Deadpool.

Now, he plays another iconic superhero in Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern as Hal Jordan, the first human ever to be selected to be a part of the Green Lantern Corps — a brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order. Reynolds discusses his character and the adventure of training for, and creating the film, in the following interview.

Hal Jordan is an interesting superhero in that he’s so flawed and has to find so much inside to become Green Lantern. Can you tell me about him?

“When you meet him, he’s a deeply arrogant, kind of reckless, immature, and kind of self-possessed guy. I mean, that’s from my point of view. And this ring that he’s bestowed by this dying alien unbeknownst to him is a gift, which at first seems kind of like a curse. And what I loved about it was that it, in essence, humbles him and forces him to grow up and acknowledge this higher calling.”

In some ways, he’s like the classic reluctant hero.

“Yeah. It’s not that he doesn’t want to do it, he just doesn’t understand why he was chosen. I mean, given his past experiences, he doesn’t really seem like a likely candidate, at least as far as he’s concerned. So, I think part of the interest for me in the character was this quest to find out why. Why me? Why was I chosen for this thing? And that idea that the ring sees something in him that even he doesn’t, and I think that’s wish-fulfillment to me. That’s something that I think a lot of audiences love and I love about movie making as well, is unravelling that mystery.”

Can you tell me a little about his relationship with Carol, and also your chemistry with Blake Lively?

“Well, Hal has a long, storied history with Carol Ferris. That’s his childhood friend, and they dated periodically throughout their relationship together. And Hal and Carol, I think, are in love to some degree. But Hal just keeps getting in his own way, and that makes a relationship with her impossible. But throughout the course of the film, he sort of confronts this and talks to her about this and they reconcile to some degree. They cast Blake Lively early on. She and I just have great chemistry and that’s something you can’t really invent. It’s either there or it’s not. And that has really helped me and helped her as well immensely.”

Did you and she have a lot of stunt-rigs to work with in doing some of the action for this film?

“Yeah. I don’t know specifically what her stuff was. She did a little bit of the rig work. But, yeah, I knew it would be a physical kind of movie. I mean, I’m not 20 anymore, so with some of the stuff, it was a little slower getting up off the ground. But I still go for it every time, and that’s part of the job. You get beat up and bruised and battered. But you kind of expect that working on a movie like this.”

Did you do any training or preparation once you knew you were going to do this part?

“I was training for six or seven months before shooting. I was in gymnastics every day, just kind of trying to get what they called ‘aerial awareness’ for the flying scenes, and just being able to move through the air upside-down and all around and not toss your cookies.”

That would be hard to get used to.

“But you do. And it’s an interesting lesson. But that stuff’s part of the job. That’s the kind of stuff that actors love to romanticize a little bit too much but it’s just part of the course. On a movie like this, you’ve got to be ready.”

If there’s something that you could say to the fans of Green Lantern the comic who have grown up with it or just found it recently, what do you think that they have to look forward to?

“They’re going to see all the ancillary Lanterns who are assembled on Oa — they’re going to see all of those characters as well. I mean, there are a lot of surprise appearances by different Lanterns in the Corps, and I think that that’s something that Green Lantern fans are going to really love.

“Sometimes they just show up for a brief line and you just see them in the background. So, I think it’s going to be that ability to lean into the movie while watching it and look in the deep background and see some character that you’ve known for 40 or 50 years, which is pretty cool.”

(Opening across the Philippines on June 16 in 3D, 2D and regular format, Green Lantern will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.)