Vancouver actor Ryan Reynolds finds comic chemistry
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 | 1:18 PM PT
CBC News
Actors Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock arrive at the premiere of The Proposal on June 1 in Los Angeles. (Gus Ruelas/Associated Press)Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds's latest movie puts him on the red carpet with two of comedy's leading ladies — Betty White and Sandra Bullock.
In The Proposal, Bullock plays the head of a New York publishing empire who wants to marry her long-time assistant, Reynolds, so she can get her green card.
"These kinds of comedies are contingent solely on the chemistry between the leads. For me, I was concentrating on setting that kind of vibe early on. The rest is kind of a cakewalk once you get the chemistry down pat," Reynolds said in an interview with CBC's cultural affairs show Q.
Reynolds, who recently married actress Scarlett Johansson, has known Bullock for about nine years and said they're good friends, but have never worked together before.
"Within the first 45 minutes we had fireworks. You have an innate sense of each other, you can do scenes without even looking at each other, you can sort of feel each other. It really helps, particularly in this type of comedy," he said.
Those are comedic fireworks, Reynolds said, the kind that leads to witty zingers such as his comedy heroes, Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, might throw in.
White, the veteran of shows such as The Golden Girls, plays Reynolds's grandmother.
Canadian stereotypes set aside
One irony of The Proposal is that Bullock plays a Canadian, while Reynolds, a Vancouver native, plays the American who can get her a legal work permit.
"You know what I loved about it — she didn't access any overt Canadian stereotypes," Reynolds said of Bullock's character.
"She's playing a skin-covered sledgehammer in the film, she's acerbic, evil and twisted, and she's Canadian."
Reynolds, 32, is known for his deadpan comic sarcasm, particularly in his creation of Deadpool, the sarcastic, but buff, assassin in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
The actor told The Canadian Press on Monday that another Deadpool film could be on the horizon.
"I hope to see it closely mirror the comic books, more than anything," he said. "There are infinite possibilities with that character. There's no one else like him in the comic book universe.
"There are a lot of different villains to choose from and a lot of different characters that come in and out of Deadpool's universe."
His year has also included a role in Adventureland and running the New York Marathon, to raise $107,000 for the fight against Parkinson's disease.
Reynolds's next movie, after The Proposal, will be Paper Man, starring Jeff Daniels. The film is opening the Los Angeles Film Festival June 16.
