Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds are both known for passionately promoting their films on social media, but Leslie Uggams, who stars alongside Reynolds in “Deadpool,” says that’s where the comparisons end.
In a New York Times feature published this past week, Uggams, who plays Deadpool’s elderly roommate Blind Al, says Reynolds is a very reserved man in real life; quite unlike the charismatic Johnson and especially unlike the loudmouth mutant anti-hero he is most famous for playing.
“Offstage, he’s not bigger than life,” Uggams said. “He’s not like the Rock. When the Rock walks in the room, I’m sure it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, the Rock.’ But that’s not Ryan. He’s not Mr. Hollywood.”
Reynolds agreed with this description of himself, telling the Times that the stark difference between his actual personality and the characters he plays has surprised many of his fans long before he started doing superhero movies. He notes that back in 2002, he was met by excited party animals who saw him in the National Lampoon college comedy “Van Wilder,” only to be surprised when he turned out to be “this incredibly boring version of a guy who looked like their hero.”
“When the curtain opens, I turn on this knucklehead, and he kind of takes over and goes away again once I walk off set,” he said. “That’s that great self-defense mechanism.”
That “self-defense mechanism” has made Reynolds into one of the most popular actors on social media, as he has regularly sent out tweets as Deadpool ever since the antihero’s big screen debut became a smash hit two years ago. Most recently, Reynolds fired out a tweet congratulating “Avengers: Infinity War” for setting the new box office opening weekend record by showing a picture of a letter denying Deadpool’s application to join the Avengers.
“Deadpool 2,” which hits theaters May 18, is expected to match the opening weekend set by the first “Deadpool,” which made a then-February record $132 million in 2016. The film went on to become one of the highest-grossing R-rated films ever released with $783 million worldwide.