Ryan Reynolds & Taraji P. Henson - Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

you okay hidden figures what I know it's a silly question it's like a one they always gave you but what attracted you to this role did it find you did you find it how did that work I'm Ted Melfi our director our fearless leader we were supposed to do a project they didn't work out and then he really still wanted to work with me and he got this grip and he called my manager and they send it to me and I read it and I just remember thinking to myself why don't I how could we don't know how come I haven't heard of these women so I made it my mission to do the film you know I was like absolutely I didn't care how much they were paying I just felt like it was it was an important piece of cinematography an important piece of history that was missing yeah and that we needed to know about and so then I became very grateful that I was the one chosen to to be a part of it you know and yeah so that's what it was for me it was just like that gave you a ton of pressure though like do you feel so much pressure because Katherine Johnson's still around and you know I mean the only yeah and so once I signed on to the project the first thing I asked was is she still alive and can I meet her and so I was able to meet her and she's 98 and she has all of her wits yeah um our brain is very sharp she had board games on our sofa on our under a chair and um I mean it was just incredible you know first thing as an actor the first thing you look at is you know how she sits her body language and I just remember I'm getting a sense of she just seemed so regal yeah and it wasn't like I'm a diva or I'm better than you because I'm smart it's just I don't know it was just a grace about her if I could say it its grace and I don't know I guess that comes she's a genius I mean she graduated high school at 14 and call it an 18 hotel definitely not me not me and I failed math so I can get this movie I did too I was in remedial math tenth grade when I was in twelfth grade it was so embarrassing I'm so Maris there I fail you I thank you thank you that's what we connect what's so horrible I think when you're in tenth grade math and you're in 12th grade they actually look at you like you know how to put your pants on in the morning oh right like it's a terrible bad what shall I do well yeah I showed them because I made enough money to have them all killed yeah uh no IIIi want one more question III cap did did she see the fellow she seems she's seen the film and think what does she I haven't spoken to her I know I haven't spoken to her but they sent me a picture actually posted through my Instagram and the entire time they're talking you know how you do these films and they're like the Oscars they said that's fine I'm not saint taking anything away from that but the weight on my shoulders was the fact that she was still alive and I was like yeah Oscars but we have to we have to make Katherine proud like this is her story so that's all I'm concerned about really is she going to be happy and she saw the film and I heard she's very happy and she was very pleased with my work so now we could talk all that other stuff yeah yeah yeah no but truly yeah because it's very important but what are we to close the loop for someone I mean she's 98 years old she has this incredible piece of history and her rear view mirror and she's fours the way for so many people and then she gets to see you perform as her in the most beautiful film of the year that's got to feel really great for her the most beautiful thing about it is I don't even think she ever expected any of it she was just going to work doing her job you know she didn't even see herself as a hero it was just what she did I will have you know I was the first Negro female student at West Virginia University graduate school on any given day I analyze the phenomena levels for air displacement friction and velocity and compute over 10,000 calculations by hand yes that women do some things at NASA mr. Johnson but enough about me do it what mate what drew you to dimple use that's your film yeah 11 years I was trying to get that thing going in it took a long long time but I don't know that they think you just you're Ryan Reynolds magical disorder no I was I was like I was I represented the death of the superhero for a while so you know after Green Lantern I was bring that category I was pretty much unhireable but um no Deadpool was uh one of those things it was just so specific though you know it was like this it was like this weird superhero anarchie that I loved so much and I loved it this guy you know you infuse so much pop-culture relevance to this character and he's just in a world where anything is possible you have a character that can directly address the audience and and say and do whatever he wants um and particularly at genre which is like really kind of a narrow window for the stuff that you can get away with it was something that always appealed to me but with like you know we put together the most incredible team of people know the ones that got us over the hump I mean Tim Miller and and and Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick who wrote the screenplay who we've been working on the script for seven years Oh seven years before it finally got not constantly because the script would be very long and maybe would people don't realize then you have to work your biddie yeah you know it was on it was off as I thought liking it too the worst relationship I've ever been in so but finally we got the movie made you know and um yeah you're gonna do a superhero laughing wait for it whoa superhero landing yeah that's really hard on your knees totally impractical they all do it being a superhero with comedy like noser I I'm surprised you didn't call me I mean taraji speed dial I mean we did a movie together nine years ago well eight years ago I was only 15 min you're just you're big just a little a little chick little girl no but yeah that's fun a superhero and comedy yeah everyone knows he's funny he's pretty funny yeah I mean I was it was just it's so it's so kind of it was such a specific kind of tone that they've been so registered with me and it was like a something that I felt it felt sort of like if I may be so bold as they felt like an alter ego in a weird way sort of like I could kind of channel this guy and I loved it it's the first time I've been a part of it that the actual filming process all the way through production through through pre-production production post-production and publicity that the marketing department all that stuff that was all just an extension of the film I think I think I was in this in the in the superhero suit more in the marketing materials than I was in the actual film which is why I stole the suit at the end of production and just needs at home with me are you gonna frame it it's no it's on a mannequin that that terrifies my children uh down in the basement yeah well how did they take it how did they well they're I have two kids under two years old Oh so yes okay in a word they took it badly of course uh yeah seeing rated-r violent swearing superhero when I have like head-to-toe scar makeup on my yeah my daughters were not not into that are you happy twins no no no no thank god oh god that would be that would be very hard on my penis um yeah no it was just just one of the time 202 six weeks and almost two years oh good yeah yeah and you're you're you're okay I'm okay yeah it's um right I'm okay I I know it doesn't look like it but I'm actually sleeping really pee okay cute you've learned the new yeah I've treated blinking it's just like little tiny next to me at this point yeah no it's great I love it I love every everything about it it's just made me a better person in it I know being a parent right yeah yeah and um so and probably with your patience and putting a movie together because that's got to be hard trying to get people to see your vision was that hard cuz I started producing I've produced a couple things and it's just so hard when you have this vision and you're like I can see it but then you got a yeah but you also have to share the vision you know I really I had such a specific ideas as to what it was and then had some of these creative partners that brought so much the table Tim Miller the director is just he's a visionary had such a great take on it Rhett and Paul the the other writers we all sort of felt like we're playing the character we all sort of felt like we're taking turns playing Deadpool while we made the movie and that that made it a really beautiful atmosphere to make any movie let alone something something like this so you know in the budget was so minimal that the studio really just felt like they could you know leave us leave us be and you know and I joke a lot about the studio being you know sort of Studios not really seeing this coming and having to spend you know 11 years trying to convince them to do it but they were actually really instrumental in getting the movie made the right way right I joke a lot about that they might have been inept or something like that but they were never actually amazing they understood the tone right away and they jumped onboard in every way so it's great that's another thing about people don't understand when you have a project you have to find the right house for it yeah now you may have a brilliant script all the pieces may you may have all the pieces to the puzzle but you get in the wrong hands it's a flop yeah you know yeah yeah I was not yet defined for you I'm happy for you how long were you attached to hidden figures before Oh God oh I say okay remember it's all such a blur it happened really fast actually um I got the script earlier in the year and next thing you know we're filming it no I you know what I don't even remember but it all happened within a year Wow yeah it all happened within the years I talked of like to plan with the DVD number two in television series as well and it's just that's gonna be yes it was very hard because um this was the first time that I was the leading role in the film coming from directly from another job yeah like and I didn't really have any time to decompose you know cookies a lot yeah you know a lot she requires so much and she's very she wears everything on her sleeve yeah you know Catherine it was a different time for women mm um you couldn't speak out um and and it was just you carried yourself differently and so I'm coming from this energy and I have to go here yeah and so I remember there were scenes where I could feel cookie trying to come out you know and I didn't it was like even the slightest lean in is cookie will raise hell and back then it probably would have been strange fruit hanging from a tree yeah back then yeah I mean you have this you have basically you have hidden figures your true story about three American heroes hmm who against all odds against Jim Crow era racism basically band together and helped put a man into space yeah what I love about the film is that we don't hit you over the head with message message message what you will see is humanity you will see humans focus on a goal bigger than themselves and they all try to go for it and they don't they put everything aside I mean it's hard at first because change is always on you know but then they get to the place where it's like we got to get over this because we got to get it yeah make it happen you know but it's growing so fast and when they when you see a movie that has such huge historical significance but it's it we're seeing it through this like incredibly intimate lens like you know it's that inch that we're moving um you know that I find so fascinating and that so that's that and this director like he just understood that he did he took great care of it he was very nurturing hmm very nurturing as if as a man buddy you know he's a dad and he has a daughter you know he was very nurturing in the way he cared for the characters and you know it was interesting watching you know actors i watch human behavior I just I'm always watching what people do when they say things and Ted likes to talk with his hands and when he would get really delicate with we company would say something to me about Katherine his hands would always go here and it involves a straight sign language by the Andy was yeah alright but it was just it was very tender you know it was like I could tell when he wanted Katherine to be tender and softened and I just loved him it's such a great director I just love what he did with the film I was blown away when I saw it I usually don't like watching myself because I can see myself you know I'm like I can hear my voice it's like but I literally I was able to sit and and watch myself for the first four I wouldn't say for the first time it was just easier to do this time around and I think it was because of the hair though yeah but it's such a big big boy and it's so intimate you know and that's why I mean I would imagine that when you're when you're watching something that is so you know so significant historically when you watch it like that I imagine you're watching it through the lens of everybody else as opposed to your own hyper critical self where that's why this way yeah people I didn't I had to watch it with an unbiased audience so I took a bunch of people that had nothing to do if I could really sit back if that's the only way I can watch myself yeah I got to put a baseball cap born and go into the theater because otherwise I'm like oh you're horrible why did you turn your head is but you you must know that from producing when you see a movie for the first time that you produced you worked on with an audience how informative it is right you suddenly are so much more forgiving of certain things and so much more critical of other things you said things like Oh negative it's done and Lorca's over yeah you have all kinds of different points of view after there is no protocol for women attending there's no protocol for man circling the Earth either side we all get there together we don't get there at all is it hard for you to watch yourself was it hard watching you in that suit well it's not I mean III think everybody experiences that to some degree you're so much more critical of yourself you know and I'm inherently self-loathing so you know I mean I can't stand it I can't stand that guy up there but but you know I think again like that's the thing when you see it with an audience and you see how much joy they're having and the experience of how important it was to a lot of particularly there's a huge fan base for comic book movies and there's particularly a very kind of stringent fan base for Deadpool who really want to make sure that you adhere to the Canon of this character and so I got to see the movie for the first time I saw it we were just testing the film but I saw a lot of people that were into Deadpool already so it passed their test and then I sort of be sort of at that point became far more forgiving of myself right um you know because it was a you know it's it's uh you're carrying a lot on your shoulders when people have expectations about something and it's uh that's always a bit of a tightrope walk so yeah but generally I hate it I have I have I have a lot of movies I haven't seen right that I was in that I haven't seen um I have movies that you know most of America wish they hadn't seen look we all have we all have a few of those so even though this is part of it you know we won't talk about that so you have your home and you're browsing channel surfing and one of your movies happened to be on will you continue surfing away this bad question I sometimes I will if I if especially if you get so far removed from it you have a much more objective take on like a few years later yeah you're like oh I don't remember anything that happened here yeah watch it it's it's easier yeah if I can do that I watched our movie recently you're amazing in that movie I was amazing in that movie you I thought that was the best cast ever really was it really the watch sort of one we'll ask her okay while we work in a table we were snubbed and I remember I remember the I remember you or the this is this is eight or nine years ago I think I remember you didn't wear a stitch of makeup in them I did it and that was where I learned for themselves like wait we're allowed to do that yeah and since then I was like I get to soar I sort of try to skip the makeup chair wherever can list its prosthetic makeup but you just like I looked beautiful thank you remember you're sitting up there the city make it operating this 50 caliber god biggest gun I've ever seen it belongs on like a naval ship it was so much no give me your worst audition what's what's the audition that you look back on an eland wow that was just an unmitigated disaster or have you never had that do you always just walk out there you go hailed it no I've had a few I there was one I was auditioning for a movie and it was a rom-com and I got this character she was quirky she was me hmm and she there was this scene where she has to clean the barnacles off the bottom others of her bow of a ship boat whatever and I thought it was brilliant to go in costume so I had flippers no no and I had the goggles and I also have this snorkel thingy and a wet suit on and I went in and I proceeded to do my I walk in the door and they're like oh yeah no yeah no flipper oh yeah you know like I'm hamming it up cuz you look at comedy 10% yeah yeah so that didn't go well no actually actually it went okay they liked they saw one out there yeah I got an A for effort yeah called me back in but they said leave the props leave the props yeah props are pretty much it but any audition it's not a it's not a great idea not yeah for all those actors out there that are watching this thing and they're gonna go into an audition with props although go for it maybe don't maybe they'll be the the little dill sort of break the North risk-takers oh I took a risk and I was also in a bootcamp class that was being taught by Bill Duke at the time and he had Denzel Washington come in Oh and talked to us and he said for his auditions you know he's a theatre actor which I am too and you're that he would take a bag of tricks he would take the kitchen really if it would get him a job so I listened to Denzel Washington I want everyone to imagine right now he will Denzel Washington in a wet suit flippers in a snorkel I can actually see it and now I can't unsee it I didn't get the job no absolutely no there it is still there every time I blink quick little shots of it yep yep yep oh yeah yeah no auditions are tough me that was scary there was I think pretty mall most of them I was not a great audition er honestly I was never a great audition but I had one where I had to sing um and that was a I'm a nervous singer I'm one of those people that you know when you're in the shower like very good yeah you know but once I get out into the real world it's that no no that's just it's just like my voice just turns into a hammer that hits everybody in the face and I did I did an audition where I had to sing and it was pretty bad it's one of those dodges it was so bad that I look back and I think like what if that tape surfaces right at some point and it just comes out and I'm that'll be the death of me yeah yeah the real social media wasn't popping back in the days when we had to audition what was your last audition my last audition was yesterday huh you can tell me yeah no it was I'm auditioning right now yeah I'm gonna be an empire this is what I'm hoping for now my last audition was I auditioned and failed for the Coen brothers they were you how did you take Hail Caesar was it no it's one before that oh yeah that was real I had a show oh no it's terrible it was ugly I own it was okay it just wasn't you know it wasn't the right fit unfortunately mostly because they're very high-class is that what yeah that is that excuse they gave you yes in the room they were just quietly shaking their heads Oh like what are you I don't believe that you have a second column or do you have the Canadian version oh no no what is it that you how did you get here that's what I'm gonna ask you how what's the difference um in in Canada in America like the work the work we're being auditioning Canada gives actors of unfair advantage in as much as there's there's a lot of work there's a lot of American work there there's a there's um you have to hire a certain amount of Canadian talent for these jobs so a lot of Canadians get breaks that they wouldn't normally get I came I started an improv comedy I moved down to LA to be an improv comic but I my first jobs were all just rendus movies of the week that were shot in in Vancouver where I always played some sort of X dynasty stars Sun and and she's suffering from alcoholism or or or shopping too much rock or some kind of weird movie of the week affliction yes yeah when was when was your last audition I can't even remember my last audition that's a good sign know what I don't know how my last audition I guess would have been for Benjamin Button Mastan oh think that was and that ended badly no no no no that no I think after that I auditioned for Shonda Rhimes for scandal I didn't thank God Carrie got it it was her Yeah right see that wasn't that funny how the ones you don't get sometimes you think was like someone else got it and they ran with it and it's perfect for them because I'm not that actress that wants to do everything I went out you know when I walked in when I got it I was like this is Carrie washy you know you get strips and you go this is so all the time all the time all the time that was her everything yeah almost like this is what we came for this isn't me freeze I know you had to jump in the Patrick Sancho come on you got your Whoopi look I know right no no yeah it's funny we the ones you lose and then you see the movies sometimes or you see whatever the stage pressure or anything and you go there they're perfect yeah a person is perfect what's it get while I'm glad of it yes there's those two you're like oh man dodged a big ol bullet there yeah oh yeah yeah yeah well how has social media changed the game for you as your career grew um I can't sort of quantify like like it's it's move mountains for me and I can only say it I've only had it for a year and a half and I applied it specifically for Deadpool because as soon as as soon as Deadpool was Greenland I got Twitter I got Instagram I got Facebook I mean the social media game for Deadpool is such a huge part of it part of the marketing I mean a lot of the stuff that we shot were just shot on my iPhone marketing materials I'll be shot just on my iPhone just having you know just around in my house or on sad or wherever so it was it was huge for creating a groundswell for Deadpool and it was so much the stuff was had to do with viral ads I mean some of we would do billboards that were just ridiculous but we only do one of them you put that image on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram and it's like it's as though that billboard was in every city in America so so it for for me I can't speak more highly of any kind of media mother than me I mean social media has been been integral to everything that I've done with that that particular film your personal life like you can go to Target still uh yeah I don't like I don't know I don't I don't really wear tweet stuff about I don't either but no tweet I don't go here hey this is me walking into the round yeah here's me at my colonoscopy I'm gonna be knocked out in a minute yeah no it's a yeah oh yeah I'm not like that either I do it for you know like I'll do a joke well for promotional stuff or anything I haven't won one in my life but how does it affect your social life it because you're walking down the street and there's like a cookie and you know oh maybe I didn't want the world to see how I look today yeah okay yeah I mean maybe I wore these sweats yesterday that is the price of an iconic character that you played them see it was fine until cookie came that's what it like I was okay under the radar yeah good I was I could go to Target look he's viral cookie like is everywhere and never saw that coming no and then it's like I go from just like this normal life to now I ad to find a house on a private gated road like you know it's crazy and I love people watching I love to go to the park and sit everybody's watching me so I can't yeah yeah that has chattin wigs I've tried shades I mean I got it all yeah there's not really yeah you're not like okay I would sort of I recognized you from 50 yards away when I walked in here use this from your back muscles like I know those back muscles I did a film with those back muscles up all those years but I guess they're uptown problems right I mean that's a good problem to have when you when you you know when you're in a place where you've you've created a character that is so permeated the zeitgeist and and and everybody and anyone and everyone loves this character they forgotten my name yeah wait till head and figures comes out though oh I hope ships it but I have a feeling that the hardcore cookie filming look at cookie okay cookie bring a rocket scientist I just no way I have you seen hidden figures have you it's a it's you could not find a more I'm just completely different characters that was did I play Cleopatra I was a Cleopatra for gala we need a cookie look a cookie is clear fetch me well that's your fault that's bad haha there's no winning with you you should have played growing Sesame Street or something I mean come on right we will make you better than better a superhero I'd say that you sound like an infomercial but not a good one like Slap Chop more shake weighty I want to ask you about Comic Con yeah you've been there now I have been there yes with dead with Deadpool yes and so come on you've been before Deadpool and you've gone now with this yeah so when we introduced footage of Deadpool for the first time at comic-con I was crazy we showed some 3 minutes of the movie and they went nuts they went nuts the scream did sort of chanting show it again which was kind of crazy so we showed it again yeah did she really felt pretty good and I was like I'm always that pessimist you know I'm always like don't don't show it again because then they'll hate it they loved it the first time let's just walk away right you know it was like being at the Jack Tech Jack black table that you know 3:00 in the morning you can't thrown one good hand down you're like let's just walk away exact uh but yeah that was um that was that was pretty great and that the I was supposed like the craziest fan one of the craziest fan encounters I had about Deadpool is actually three days ago I was on my way to Rhett Reese who's one of the writers of Dipple his wedding in Arizona and I was coming from New York and I was on an airplane that had to make an emergency landing and it was a medical emergency for someone in the back who's totally fine I said that with the caveat that she's totally fine now but it she was a newlywed they're on their way to their honeymoon the poor girl got really violently ill on the plane and she did he brought the plane down so we in Oklahoma but the husband as he's walking past my seat is like Deadpool his man he's like high-five in and I'm instantly five week old at home I really don't want to high-five you right now in case your wife's stomach virus goes to me and then I bring it to my family anyway I'm sorry that was that was one of the the strange is life could be dying and you yes I know I was less like your wife's pretty sick right now yeah come on dude keep her head down right now let's be cool about this because yeah uh yeah that would not have ended well if I were him in his position my wife is on a stretcher yeah I know what I'm gonna go as for Halloween next year are you gonna go ahead I'm gonna go as cookie Hey okay been done I'll go as cookie and you're going as the husband on the airplane oh my god pull exactly well the finally I hold you to that yes orth finally okay Monica so Ryan how have you managed to stay relevant touch to stay relevant ah yes through my just my vacuous inescapable need for attention uh no IIIi you know I don't know Hollywood Zack weird place I've been I've been up and down and sideways and all around and and you know it's a it's one of those like I mean for instance Deadpool is a good examples I you know I I can't imagine the studio Fox they took a gamble on me because the last time I stepped out as the superior didn't work this one obviously was so much different than other superheroes but but you know it was just so specific so I think that specificity is what saved me in that in that regard but you haven't up up and down all around I mean I just I had look at my expectations though when I moved to this this city in Los Angeles and when I was 18 years old all my highest achievement my highest goal at that time was to be on the main stage and for Groundlings yeah you know I mean it so which is a great thing to do and when those people are insanely talented but but you know just the fact I'm sitting here I never would have guessed that so for me it's sort of all good you know I mean the apps the Downs all around I mean I've always kept up I think I've kept a pretty healthy perspective about it so yeah how are you um for me it's just work I never judge it I never oh oh I have to be number one in this project or what I'm this role is so small I just I pick up a script I either I gel with it or I don't and I don't care about the numbers yeah yeah you know what I mean I don't care because if I don't you know I you know I I don't know a lot of young kids are they're like I I wanna be a star I want to be a star but be ready for it you ready for that number one position there were times where I thought I want to be the leading I want I can passionate but play that role yeah until I got the leading role and then I was like I don't get a day off yeah I mean everybody's going out I'm still at work you know yeah so it's like you just work work work and then you look up one day and you're sitting here and I never like I didn't chase it I just I work I just love what I do and I don't know if I'll ever stop maybe that's part of the recipe for it you know yeah I think that is part of us because if you're not precious about it all you're gonna you know these these opportunities become available to I mean you you play Catherine Johnson you get to introduce that story to the world I think that that's like a when I look at things like that that's that's a privilege you know when I see hidden figures I see Deadpool it's like a the same movie both heroes Hey all right for the hero why am I sitting here why am I sitting here

Channel: Variety

Views: 2,028,432

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, ryan reynolds, taraji p henson, taraji b henson cookie, cookie empire, ryan reynolds deadpool, deadpool 2 spoilers, deadpool 2 trailer, deadpool 2 teaser

Id: WI4BoyQq7EI

Length: 31min 5sec (1865 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2016