‘Dumb Dumb’: Denzel Washington Left Ryan Reynolds ‘Terrified’ After On-Set Blowup Over a Phone
Ryan Reynolds knows how to get himself out of a pickle by doing what he does best …acting. In fact, he was able to put on a convincing enough performance to avoid facing the heat from Denzel Washington.
Reynolds attended the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 5, where he shared stories about his career and life during a live audience discussion. Among one of those tales, Reynolds, who is currently promoting his documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” talked about a time he irritated his “Safe House” co-star Denzel Washington while they were filming on the set of the 2012 movie.
A clip from the conversation shows the “Deadpool” star recounting how “terrified” he was to be working with a legend like Washington.
He made light of his fear and said, “The great thing is the character’s terrified, so it’s no problem. I just have to play scared the whole time it’s great.’”
After sharing that he and Washington got a chance to rehearse twice, he gave rare insight into how Washington works when it comes to shooting emotional scenes.
“With this guy, with an emotional scene, you get it twice. You get it once, and then you get it twice,” he said. “If you f-ck up, that’s on you, it’s not going to be on him, and he’s leaving, so you better get it!”
To help the audience visualize, Reynolds paraphrased what occurred to Washington’s character in the “emotional” scene.
“So he does this emotional scene. It’s crazy. There’s all these dead stunt guys around in this scene. And he’s been shot, wounded, dying, and admits all the stuff that he did wrong,” he said. “Tears start rolling down his face.”
Everything was going as planned, but it was the next moment that ruined it all.
“And suddenly you hear — and this is take two, by the way, because take one there was a technical problem — we hear [Frank Sinatra singing] ‘Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away.’”
Pointing to himself, Reynolds said, “Dumb dumb is sitting on his phone. I’m dumb dumb in this story. And I can feel everybody looking around like, ‘what the f-ck is happening right now?’ I can see Denzel with a tear in his eye.”
In the next moment, Reynolds heard the director Daniel Espinosa say, “Who the f—‘s phone is that?”
“And then finally, Denzel breaks character [and says], ‘Who the f-ck’s phone is that?’”
Putting his acting skills to good use, Reynolds placed the blame on the stuntman so no one would suspect he was at fault.
“I stand up and look at all the stuntmen around me, and I go, ‘Who the f-ck’s phone is that? Inexcusable!’”
But he said, he quietly admitted to a crew member that he was at fault. Afterward, an assistant director on set asked Washington, “‘D, can you do another one?’ And he’s like, ‘We’re going to have to, aren’t we?’”
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Reynolds told the audience, “And I’m like, ‘Yes — the stunt men!”
While his quick thinking may have gotten him out of trouble with Washington, this confession of the mishap caused more issues for him with fans.
One person said, “Ryan Reynolds is an elitist who blames the working man for his mistakes, got it.”
Another wrote, “Of course you lied about it and blamed a ‘staffer’ who you are convinced is beneath your self centered ego. What a tool.”
Under People’s post, a third-party recalled a moment when Denzel Washington roasted Ryan Reynolds with a brutal joke about his acting. They said, “Yeah Denzel thought you were a bad actor and a douche! He was right. Why is he still relevant?”
It’s true. The Oscar-winning actor did roast Reynolds over his performance in “Safe House.”
During the 2012 press run for the film, Washington appeared on “The Jonathan Ross Show,” where Jonathan Ross repeated some of the praise Reynolds gave Washington.
Paraphrasing Reynolds’ words to Washington, Ross said, “Working with Denzel was a sort of life time dream and he said you’re just about the best actor going. And the problem that that brought for him working with you was that sometimes when he was in a scene, he would forget to act and he would sit there and be watching you acting.”
Without hesitation, Washington said, “Oh is that what it was? I just thought he was terrible.”
The audience roared with laughter and Washington said, “No. I’m kidding. He’s a great young actor and very talented.”
Despite the audio interruption, the co-stars were able to make a movie that reached success in the box office. The project grossed $208 million, according to IMDb, with a production budget of $85 million.
‘Dumb Dumb’: Denzel Washington Left Ryan Reynolds ‘Terrified’ After On-Set Blowup Over a Phone