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These days, Ryan Reynolds’ name pops up in the tabloids on an almost daily basis.
But for most of his career, Reynolds’ personal life and behavior on set was of little interest to the general public.
He was one of Hollywood’s “nice guys” — an unassuming Canadian whose self-deprecating humor made him a go-to option for directors seeking a charismatic comedic lead.
These days, of course, Reynolds is a superhero franchise star. He’s also at the center of the year’s juiciest scandal thanks to his wife’s legal battle against Justin Baldoni.
Ryan and Blake’s ongoing drama
Yes, as you’ve no doubt heard by now, Blake Lively is suing Baldoni for sexual harassment that allegedly occurred on the set of the film It Ends With Us.
Justin has filed a $400 million countersuit in which Ryan is also named.
Baldoni alleges that Reynolds assisted Lively in her efforts to take over the film. He claims the couple rewrote scenes and bullied him on set.
The scandal has caused many to view Reynolds in a new light. But according to one former co-star, this is not the first time that Ryan has been accused of creating problems while filming.
Matthew Lawrence opens up about Ryan’s past problematic behavior
Actor and former child star Matthew Lawrence was paired with Reynolds on the set of the 2000 horror comedy Boltneck. These days the film is all but forgotten, but according to Lawrence, some memorable drama unfolded during production.
Matthew says Ryan was a total primadonna with an unfortunate tendency to storm off rather than listen to criticism.
“He’d walk out — just kind of wanted to do his thing and the producers would get really upset,” Lawrence said on the latest episode of his podcast (via Page Six).
“They even told him, ‘Ryan, this is a bad Jim Carrey impersonation. This is not what we hired you to do. You can’t impersonate somebody, you gotta do your own thing.’”
Lawrence added that Reynolds “got upset” over the producers’ feedback and angrily shot back, “I’m doing my thing.”
Apparently, the two parties couldn’t see eye-to-eye, as the production team envisioned an indie sci-fi thriller like Donnie Darko, but Reynolds was “trying to ‘Deadpool’” the script.
“There was this major pull between one of the lead actors … so that is what my experience with Ryan Reynolds was,” Lawrence said, before giving Reynolds the benefit of the doubt: “He obviously matured as a human being.”
Several crew members were fresh from their Oscar-winning work on 1999’s Gods and Monsters, and it seems they were dismissive of Ryan’s future career prospects after witnessing his behavior on set.
“We had so much hope for this guy. He’s going nowhere,” Lawrence recalled the crew saying.
“They blamed that movie not working on him because they said there was this whole conflict.”
Needless to say, the prediction of Ryan being drummed out of his Hollywood for his immaturity has not come to pass.
But has Reynold’s on-set behavior improved? Not if you ask Justin Baldoni!
