The terrifying wedding gift Samuel L. Jackson sent to Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds married Scarlett Johansson in 2008 after dating for just over a year. The couple “met at dinner with friends and were introduced and just hit it off,” as Reynolds told David Letterman in 2009. The pair were very quiet about their relationship while it lasted, and sadly, in 2011, they filed for a divorce. It was reported at the time that their separately busy schedules made it difficult to maintain a healthy relationship.
One of the only times Reynolds publicly discussed his marriage to Johansson was in his 2009 conversation with Letterman. After briefly discussing a happy married life, the Canadian actor revealed that Samuel L. Jackson had imposed a questionable wedding gift upon the newlyweds.
“We didn’t do any wedding gifts or anything like that, but occasionally, something comes along that you just can’t pass up,” Reynolds said. “One day, somebody knocks on our door, and I open the door, and it’s a gentleman standing there, and he says, ‘I have a gift for you in the trunk of my car from Mr. Samuel L. Jackson.”
“Now, I’ve seen [Jackson in] Pulp Fiction… Immediately, you’re thinking, the bloodless corpse of a fratboy,” he continued. “But no, he comes back from the trunk, and he brings this square box, and it’s humming to an insane degree. He tells me that there are ten thousand bees in here and Mr Jackson would like you to have this beehive.
“So I said, ‘I guess we’re putting that in the back yard?’ And he says ‘Yes’. So he hands me a couple of beekeeping outfits and a lifetime subscription to the American Beekeepers Journal. The next thing I know, I’m making honey.”
Despite being petrified by the gift, Reynolds managed to find one positive in it. “What’s fantastic about this is it’s actually a great security system,” he opined. “Some people are afraid of alarms, some people aren’t. Some people are afraid of guard dogs, some people aren’t. But I don’t know anyone who is not afraid of terrible, terrible swarms of bees.”
After months of arduous training and a few stings, Reynolds revealed that the bees’ labours had only endowed him with one jar of honey.
“It’s tremendous, but it’s a terrifying experience because you go home, and you go back up to the house to bed that night, and you’re just thinking, ‘What if these guys decide to freak out in that hive and come and take me,’” he concluded.
