Ryan Reynolds has shared the straight-shooting advice Marvel boss Kevin Feige gave that haunted him while he made Deadpool & Wolverine.
The actor, producer and co-writer, who achieved huge box office success with the film, also said “there was one line in the entire film” Disney asked him to remove from the 15-certificate movie, but has remained quiet on what that was. However, he said he believes the studio “was right” to ask.
Reynolds has reflected on its release two months on, revealing why it took him so long to make the film, which followed 2018’s Deadpool 2.
“It had been six years since I had done one of those movies because you can’t take your hand off the stick – every scene has to do something or feel something,” he told audience members gathered at Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York on Tuesday (17 September).
Heightening the pressure was Feige, who oversees films released as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), whose “haunting” words the actor recalled.
“He said something that sounds very pedantic and is probably not the thing to say out loud, but actually, weirdly, served as a creative engine,” Reynolds explained, adding: “He was like, ‘Make every scene great.’ And I was like, ‘Thanks, Kev. Sounds good.’”
The actor said that, as production on the film went on, Feige’s words “haunted me”, as it’s “hard” to make something “great”.
Reynolds also said he was concerned Disney, who owns Marvel, would act “like a red-line lawyer on every page” – but in actual fact, Marvel and Disney were “such great partners”.
While the film became a huge hit, many critics complained that the many meta jokes and unexpected cameos became “tedious”, with The Independent arguing the film “used” its audience.
However, Reynolds disagrees with this sentiment, telling the crowd the film was “engineered so that people walked out of the experience, at minimum, a little bit better than when they walked in, and at maximum, just walking on sunshine and feeling that audience delight”.
He said watching the film with an audience was “an apex moment in my life”.
