Ryan Reynolds is sick of his own voice. Not from talking, mind you. But from singing.
As it turns out, while Reynolds’ Christmas movie “Spirited” – released on Apple TV+ in December – became a favorite of families over the holiday season, it also became a favorite in Reynolds’ household. Specifically with his kids.
“I’m so touched that I have something that they want to watch four times a day,” he told TheWrap during a recent interview. “It’s both alarming and deeply flattering.”
As many others have, his kids latched onto the number “Good Afternoon,” a showstopping piece in the middle of the movie set in Dickensian times in which Reynolds and Will Ferrell duet, tap dance and sidestep explosions.
The song has been shortlisted for the Best Original Song Oscar, and the process of writing, evolving and performing “Good Afternoon” was one of joyous invention on the part of songwriters Reynolds, Justin Paul, Benj Pasek, Khiyon Hursey, Sukari Jones and Mark Sonnenblick.
“I thought it was a unique way into something, I wasn’t sure what,” Reynolds said of suggesting they write a musical number called “Good Afternoon.”
“Thankfully when you’re working with people of the caliber of Benj and Justin they understand how to convert an idea like that, and it just seemed like a really juicy, fun part in the movie worthy of a little expansion,” he said. “And these guys thankfully stepped right up to the task and then some. My kids still, when we walk down the street if anyone says, ‘Oh good afternoon,’ I have a three year old that — I’m not making this up — says ‘How dare you!’”
The phrase “Good Afternoon” comes straight from Charles Dickens, as it’s the phrase that Scrooge uses when he slams the door in someone’s face. Reynolds and Co. took this and ran with it, as the finished number finds Reynolds and Ferrell’s characters essentially offending everyone they see.
And it’s all done in the style of a classic musical.
“For us, thinking about these classic musicals whether it’s ‘Mary Poppins’ or whether it’s ‘Oliver,’ to get to write something where someone like Ryan is doing his best Dick Van Dyke,” Pasek said during the same Zoom interview alongside Reynolds and Paul. “It totally colored everything for us, and the way that we thought of this was like a PG-13 or a Rated R ‘Mary Poppins.’ So knowing that we were going to set it in that world, and we were going to get to have all these references and really spoof and send up these classic big musical numbers, that was such a big part of the fun.”
Reynolds is no stranger to improvisation, but does such a well-honed number like “Good Afternoon” leave room for invention after all the rehearsals and staging? As it turns out, yes.
“I always loved that idea that necessity is the mother invention. It’s quite literally the north star of my company Maximum Effort. We live and die by it,” Reynolds explained. “Will and I had practice this tap dance number and both of us were quite adamant that we did not want to do tap, mostly because we were afraid of it. Because it’s just such a challenging medium to try to look even remotely proficient with as little experience as we have. So we’ve worked on this little tap number for months, and once we got to the location the street was cobblestone. And you can’t tap on cobblestone. I mean, I’m sure Fred Astaire or Gene could certainly do it, but we couldn’t.”
Faced with the revelation that their tap training may have been for naught, an idea arose. What if a wall fell over and created a flat surface on which to tap?
“The whole reason that wall falls down and the bomb happens was because we wanted to preserve this tap number and we basically relinquished this idea that we would ever get to pull it off,” Reynolds said. “We were still a few weeks out from shooting and I just had a pitch that what if two people were fighting inside a bar somewhere, and they slammed into the wall so hard that the wall came down and gave us a smooth surface to tap dance on? And I think it was Will or Sean [Anders] who had the better idea of using a bomb like an old fashioned sort of ACME, like Wile E. Coyote-type bomb that that goes in there and blows it up and it slams down.”
And voila, the tap number was saved.
“It kind of gave us this permission and this reason to continue the tap number which is still one of my favorite pieces of dancing in the movie, probably because it was just so much work to get this little tiny little sliver in the movie,” he continued.
Another example of the nimbleness with which the song was written is the Judi Dench cameo, which came about because they were trying to find a word that rhymed with “French.”
“There’s a French to rhyme with and there was a ‘wench’ and then we got feedback that we don’t want to use the word ‘wench,’ And then so out of all this comes a reference to what else rhymes is Judi Dench. Okay, well, Judi Dench, I mean is that a thing at all?” Pasek explained of the process. “We were all on a Zoom and working on Google Docs trying to figure out what these rhymes wanted to be, and Sukari especially kept hitting this like ‘Judi Dench,’ and we were like, ‘That feels a little maybe too far outside this thing.’”
Eventually they relented and agreed to include the line, “Just deplore ‘em with decorum like you’re Judi bloody Dench,” which of course led to the question: Is there a world in which Judi Dench could actually appear in the film?
And that’s when it pays to have Ryan Reynolds on your side.
“Cameos are part of the economy of kindness in Hollywood,” Reynolds said. “Believe it or not, it’s not all just depravity. Cameos are one of the most beautiful aspects of the community. People ask you to be in their movie, that’s not the time where you start giving them your rider. You just show up and you do it, and the next thing you know you’re doing a movie two years later and you need a cameo from someone and they step up for you. It’s the kind of thing you want to pay forward as much as humanly possible, so I’m always grateful when people step into something like that.”
Still, Judi Dench?
“I can’t believe Judi Dench said yes because she certainly has better things to do than this,” Reynolds added. “But she did and it’s a great moment of the number.”
The actor is also prepared to repay the favor whatever it takes. “I will literally submit myself to be emergency harvestable organs for Judi Dench, should she ask at any point,” he said.
If “Good Afternoon” is indeed Oscar-nominated, and if the telecast decides to make the musical numbers part of the show, is Reynolds prepared to perform?
“I can’t think of anything more terrifying than that, but surely they make drugs for this. But yeah, I mean, I can’t imagine I would say no,” he replied to visible enthusiasm from Pasek and Paul. “I can’t speak for Will so let’s leave that caveat there, but I imagine you would get up there and have some fun with it. I don’t know if we do the exact song, I think we play with it maybe.”
“We could do an Oscars specialty version of ‘Good Afternoon,’” Paul added. “The question is, is Judi Dench prepared and is she available?”
When I offered up Reynolds’ upcoming “Deadpool 3” co-star Hugh Jackman – who previously hosted the Oscars and performed a musical medley – as an alternate, he was quick to note Jackman could take his place.
“I feel like Hugh Jackman could take my place very easily, but we all know he’s allergic to swearing,” Reynolds said. “So yeah, we’ll see. I can’t imagine there’s a world in which we would get away with not performing this on some level if it’s nominated, so yeah I suppose we would.”
And that would make for a genuinely good afternoon for all.
“Spirited” is currently streaming on Apple TV+.