Ryan Reynolds: What Hugh Jackman taught me about musicals

You know the festive period is approaching when there’s a new film adaptation of A Christmas Carol. This year, it’s Spirited, starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell (already king of Christmas films thanks to Elf).

Spirited gives a modern and musical spin on the Charles Dickens classic. The only problem was, its stars are not natural singers and dancers.

Fortunately, Ryan Reynolds had a man he could call on.

Ryan Reynolds has somewhat of a bromance with Hugh Jackman. Recently the pair released a video that went viral revealing that Jackman would be returning to the iconic role of Wolverine in an upcoming Deadpool film. But another iconic role saw him as quite literally as The Greatest Showman. So who better to ask for advice?

“It comes so naturally to Hugh that in a weird way, his helping was not helping,” Reynolds says. “He was like, ‘Just make sure you’re listening to those count-offs and those beats’. And I was like, ‘I don’t hear the beats, man. Like, help me out with something real here!’”

And he did, Reynolds remembers.

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“Hugh and I were having coffee one day and he reminded me of something that is so vital with almost anything that you’re doing in the arts. He said, ‘Just remember to enjoy it, because if you’re enjoying it, we’ll enjoy it.’

“That was something that I constantly reminded myself. Even when I felt so out of my depth, which was almost every day, I kept reminding myself that this is an opportunity of a lifetime.

“Reminding me of that really made the whole project incredible for me. And it actually extended well beyond this project into other aspects of my life. So that was pretty good advice.”

There are many similarities between superhero films and musicals. Fighting is replaced by dancing. Suspending your disbelief when characters start flying or travelling to space is similar to not questioning the realism when somebody bursts into song.

So it is not surprising that Ryan Reynolds has had musical plans for his most famous role, Deadpool.

“I would love to see a song and dance number in a Deadpool movie,” he tells The Big Issue. “Four years ago Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and I wrote a Christmas movie starring Deadpool. But it got lost in the shuffle of Disney acquiring Fox and it never got made.

“Maybe one day we’ll get to make that movie. It’s not a musical, but it’s a full Deadpool Christmas movie. So one day.”

Hopefully a Deadpool Christmas movie will be something to look forward to in a Christmas yet to come.

Spirited will premiere globally on Apple TV+ on November 18, 2022