Before last February Ryan Reynolds’ career as a leading man had been rather inconsistent. But then in February Deadpool was released to superb reviews and a box office haul so huge that it became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.
This success confirmed Ryan Reynolds as one of the most in demand actors in all of Hollywood, and he has recently followed it up with Life. The sci-fi horror film reunited Ryan Reynolds with director Daniel Espinosa, as the pair previously worked together on Safe House back in 2012.
Daniel Espinosa has noticed a change and evolution in Ryan Reynolds’ performances as an actor during this time, as the Swedish filmmaker believes that Reynolds now seems more comfortable in front of the camera than he was around half a decade ago.
In fact, during his discussion with The Hollywood Reporter , Daniel Espinosa noted that, because of the success of Deadpool , he believes that Ryan Reynolds is only going to get better as an actor in the future, too. Daniel Espinosa even went as far as to predict that Ryan Reynolds will win an Academy Award within the next fifteen years.
“When I did my first close up of him, I was literally stunned. I was stunned by this newfound comfortability within him. I asked him to pour out to a bit more of some grief in his character. I could see he had access to a whole different kind of emotionality than he did as a younger actor — and I think Ryan is going to be one of our great actors in the next 15 years. I would not be surprised if he is holding the golden statue within the next 15.”
Daniel Espinosa believes that Ryan Reynolds has evolved as an actor because of the fact that he’s become a father. He also predicted that Ryan Reynolds will start to rival the likes of James Stewart and George Clooney now that he’s in his forties, as he explained that actors find a “deeper sense” in their performances during this time.
“I think that becoming a father and growing up, something changed within Ryan. I think he has grown. I think he is one of those actors, we have [George] Clooney, some of those great actors from the 50s, one of the great idols is James Stewart. They really thrived in their 40s. Something happened with them and they found a deeper sense in their performance. I think we all saw that when we saw Deadpool . It is a happy-go-lucky movie. He did a great performance.”
Daniel Espinosa isn’t the only individual to have worked with Ryan Reynolds that thinks he’s on the pathway to Oscar success. Hugh Jackman told Variety at the start of the year that he was so impressed by Ryan Reynolds’ performance in Deadpool that he believes he “should be nominated for everything.”
“I’ve been out there campaigning. I think he should be nominated for everything. That stuff is not easy, when you know how much of it he wrote himself and created to keep that tone. Hats off to him.”
This then provoked Hugh Jackman to go into more detail about the lack of recognition that superhero and comic-book movies get during awards season, while also explaining just how integral Ryan Reynolds was to the marketing success of Deadpool , too.
“When I hosted the Oscars, [ The Dark Knight ] didn’t get nominated and everyone was talking about it. I think the genre is evolving. It’s a stretch to say these are injustices in life — we are happy and making movies. But I love it when someone like Ryan gets recognized. I loved it when Johnny Depp got recognized for Pirates of the Caribbean . The word around Fox was if you’re doing anything with marketing Deadpool , you don’t call Ryan’s publicist. You call him direct. He was all over everything.”
[Featured Image by Sony]