Interview Quotes

Reflections on Life, Comedy, and Career

"You don't know when you're making it... this is going to work, this is not going to work. You could, when you're older, I think you can trust your experience and your instincts that line up. But then when you're older, you also go, nobody knows anything."

— Ryan Reynolds • 00:46:16

"I think like comedy and drama subsist on the same thing. Tension, subverting it makes, moves you. And if you have a like a film that has emotion, then you can, or anything, redemption, call whatever you want, but it makes all that funny stuff so much more funny and rich and powerful."

— Ryan Reynolds • 01:13:30

"Constraint is the greatest creative tool in the world. And that's why I like commercials because there's an economy to them. You can't have to make them quick. You have to be not precious about them."

— Ryan Reynolds • 01:34:57

"Movies are hard to make. It's impossible... everyone has to be excellent, like really in care. People sort of underestimate how valuable caring is."

— Ryan Reynolds • 01:25:21

On Family and Personal Growth

"My dad got out of copping... and then became a food broker, which we're like, come on, that's CIA, right? And he's like, no, I really am a middleman for jars of jam."

— Ryan Reynolds • 00:52:16

"It's like your, your memory becomes like a, less of a reliable narrator and it's becomes more of a feeling... I'm realizing I don't know as much now as I thought I did then."

— Ryan Reynolds • 01:03:09

"If you really think you've hurt someone's feelings... you have trouble like I can't sleep. You know, you wake up and you're just, you know, wide away."

— Ryan Reynolds • 01:29:43

On Fame and Public Interaction

"I'm always uncomfortable with the thing that I'm also, uh, in, pursuant of... I found a way to kind of make myself appreciate that part of it more because I love acknowledging and playing with the cultural landscape, whether it's a movie, a commercial, sports, like, I don't care."

— Ryan Reynolds • 01:20:13

"When a kid comes up and says, 'can I get a selfie with you?' I'm like, 'who's the most important person in your life?'... You switch to a video. And I'm like, 'Frank, I'm here with—what's your name?'—'Will'... he wants, he, you're the most important person."

— Ryan Reynolds • 01:21:40