The movie role that made Ryan Reynolds “unhirable”
In the modern movie industry, no one embodies the frenetic pace of Hollywood than Ryan Reynolds, the American star of the silver screen who has risen to significance thanks to his turn as Deadpool in the Marvel cinematic universe. Sure, he might not be part of the mainline group of characters that we’ve grown to know and love, but his on-screen appearances with the likes of Josh Brolin, Hugh Jackman and Zazie Beetz have thrilled audiences worldwide.
Rising to stardom throughout the 1990s, Reynolds struggled to find his feet in the industry until superhero cinema came calling. His first foray into the genre came in the 2003 sequel Blade: Trinity, where he co-starred with Wesley Snipes and Jessica Biel. Often forgotten in the vast filmography of Marvel, Reynolds followed up this moderate success with an appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009.
Playing a poorly fleshed-out version of the character that would later make him a household name in the industry, Reynolds got itchy feet following the flop that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine and looked for pastures new within the limits of superhero cinema. DC Studios was his destination, taking a starring role in the 2011 film Green Lantern, a decision that he would later come to regret.
“I represented the death of the superhero for a while. After Green Lantern, I was pretty much unhirable,” he stated in an interview with Variety in reference to the 2011 flop that made $220million from a budget of a whopping $200million. Telling the story of a maverick pilot who comes into contact with a cosmic ring that grants him special powers, the film was supposed to continue the momentum of the DC Superhero Universe.
Speaking further about the film he regrets taking on, he adds: “With Green Lantern, I don’t think anyone ever figured out exactly what it was…It also fell victim to the process in Hollywood, which is like poster first, release date second, script last. At the time, it was a huge opportunity for me, so I was excited to try and take part in it”.
Continuing, he added: “There was just too many people spending too much money and when there was a problem rather than say, ‘OK, let’s stop spending on special effects and let’s think about character’. That just never… the thinking was never there to do that…It was not a feeling I wanted to repeat. So I really spent the following years just owning as much as I could, it was the only way to kind of process it”.
It’s safe to say that Green Lantern didn’t quite have the impact Reynolds was hoping for, going down as one of the biggest failures of modern Hollywood filmmaking. Take a look at the trailer for the film, at your peril, below.
