Ryan Reynolds: From Comedy to Action Hero

When Ryan Reynolds was a teenager, he fantasized about coming to Hollywood, starring in a sitcom or a few comedies. His expectations were low. He felt that he would never make it, and that he would very likely never make it to Los Angeles.

"I wanted to play a funny neighbor in a sitcom. But my expectations were terribly low. I thought maybe I'd go to Los Angeles, do a few trashy comedies and a few acting jobs on the side. I believed that I would then miserably give up and go back to school," said the most sought-after actor today in an interview with "The Guardian".

Some of his predictions did come true. Reynolds traveled from Vancouver to Los Angeles, played in several sitcoms (Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place), but also failed comedies like "Dick", "The In-Laws", "Buying The Cow" and "Big Monster". On Campus”. And then, at the age of 27, he got the role of a detective in the hit "Blade: Trinity" and spent three months in the gym. He practiced and practiced and became something he never believed he would be - Hollywood's favorite bad guy. It worked. He had it all - romantic roles, superhero movies, A-list girls, a place on People magazine's sexiest men alive list. Roles in the films "Buried" and "The Voices" followed, and Ryan Reynolds became one of today's favorite actors.

And did he regret not remaining an action hero, that at the beginning he was...

“No, I've never really had good reflexes. When I'm in the mood, I can be funny, but something like that is out of my league. Can I do that? Well, I don't know, muscles play a big role here. Those Hollywood guys are so good, I don't know," says Reynolds and adds, "For me, acting is something much more. I love that feeling when I'm in a team. I am constantly thinking about how I can make the people around me feel better. They make me look great in movies, how can I repay them".

His new film “Mississippi Grind” in which he stars with Ben Mendelsohn, recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Reynolds says that he wanted to do this film so badly that he promised the directors that if they hired him, he would give them his first child. Of course, it was a joke, but, Ryan says, "and a bird on a branch."

"I still have a lot of work to do on that (child), so I have no idea how I'll ever repay them," Reynolds says with a laugh. Realization is a heartwarming story about small-time con artist Curtis (Reynolds) and real estate agent Gary (Mendelsohn) who bond over a game of poker and head to New Orleans to earn enough money to pay off Gary's debts. The melancholic comedy is actually an ode to Southern American beer parties where old idlers sip whiskey and roll aces. Reynolds, he says, enjoyed the research.

“In Vegas, I can gamble for about six or seven hours and then I start screaming. But these places are really fascinating - their stories, their personalities. I think that the reason why people sit at desks for 14 hours a day for 40 years does not lie only in that much-shouted addiction. I think they like it and enjoy spinning the wheel", the young actor is sure. And that also means that they haven't even been to the cinema for a long time.

"We haven't had a situation where the two of us sit down at the table next to theirs, and they get excited like, 'Oh, Hollywood is here.' No! They had no idea who me and Ben were. For them, we were just two more new faces with our own stories. Which we basically are, aren't we," said Ryan Reynolds.

People are my huge line of cocaine

Before the cameras rolled, Ben and Ryan spent several weeks on the town, gambling with their own money, the damage to their wallets being commensurate with that of the characters they were playing.

"I have absolutely no interest in gambling, my wallet is damaged by gambling to research people. People are my huge line of cocaine. I enjoy them, they inspire me, whatever they are. But Ben really 'dives' into the gambling world so much that I started to worry about him. I kept checking on him, asking him if he had lost a home or something. Of course, it didn't go that far, but he was definitely on that path," admits Reynolds, who because of of the new movie also read a lot about gamblers.

"It's interesting that people are more addicted to losing than to winning at gambling. When you win, you get a so-called psychological break, but when you lose, the endorphins go crazy. I've had some trivial addictions in my life, I think we all have them. Those things grab you in a way you'd never expect them to grab you. And that adrenaline rush you get when you're afraid you'll lose them can't be compared to anything," the actor explains.