Ryan Reynolds

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ryan Reynolds

• Ryan Reynolds’s grandfather Chester Reynolds represented the Canadian district Stettler in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1940 to 1944.

• Ryan Reynolds has Irish, Scottish, one-eighth Luxembourgish (from Luxembourg), English, Cornish, and more distant Dutch and German ancestry and he was raised in the Roman Catholic Church in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood and Vanier, Ontario (now a neighbourhood in Ottawa, Canada).

• Ryan was raised by his parents in a middle-class household.

  

• Ryan’s father was a very strict parent and at the age of 12, Ryan Reynolds got his ears pierced against his father’s wish. When the family sat down for dinner that night, Ryan looked around the table and saw that all three of his older brothers had gotten their ears pierced too so that Ryan didn’t get scolded by his father alone.

• Ryan has been inclined towards acting since the age of thirteen.

• Ryan Reynolds and American-Canadian actor Joshua Jackson were classmates at the Kitsilano Secondary School.

• Ryan failed his high-school drama class due to non-attendance.

• When he was 17 years old, Ryan Reynolds went for a sky-diving experience and that’s when his primary parachute failed to launch during a dive. He eventually managed to pull himself together and launch his back-up parachute successfully but since that incident, he has an acute fear of heights and flying.

• He used to work during the nights as a grocery store clerk in Canada to help make ends meet.

• Ryan played small roles in a number of television series but he became discouraged and quit acting at age 19 to enroll at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Canada.

• A few months later, he ran into the actor Chris William Martin who convinced him to try acting again and move with him to Los Angeles, America. Ryan agreed to Chris’s advice and dropped out of college to pursue his acting career full-time.

• During his days in college, he started his own improv group named ‘Yellow Snow.’

• Ryan Reynolds was offered the role of Xander in Joss Whedon’s WB TV series titled ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (1997–2003) but Ryan rejected the role because he didn’t want to play a teenager anymore.

• In 1991, Ryan attended an open casting call and landed a lead role in Nickelodeon’s Florida-shot teen soap opera titled ‘Hillside.’

  

• In 2001, he met the American actress Rachael Leigh Cook and they both started dating each other soon after and dated for nearly a year.

• Ryan was an avid soccer player from age 6 to 16 and if he hadn’t been an actor, he would’ve been a professional athlete.

• He is fluent in English and French and also knows conversational Italian, Spanish, and Irish.

• In 2002, Ryan Reynolds met the Canadian singer Alanis Morissette and they both started dating soon after. The couple announced their engagement in 2004; however, in 2007, the representatives for the pair announced they had mutually decided to end their engagement for unknown reasons.

• Soon after his breakup with Alanis Morissette, Ryan Reynolds started dating the American actress Scarlett Johansson and both of them announced their engagement in 2008. In the same year, the couple got married in a private ceremony near Tofino, British Columbia.

• In 2004, he gained 25 pounds of muscle for his character in the American superhero film titled ‘Blade: Trinity.’

  

• In 2008, Ryan’s ex-girlfriend and singer Alanis Morissette released an English song titled ‘Torch’ which was written about Ryan Reynolds. The song was part of her seventh studio album titled ‘Flavors of Entanglement.’

• In 2010, Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson announced their separation and their divorce was finalised on 1 July 2011.

• Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively met each other for the first time in 2010 while shooting for the American superhero film titled ‘Green Lantern’ (2011). They both started dating each other in 2011 and got married in 2012.

  

• In the same year, Ryan Reynolds was named People‘s Sexiest Man Alive.

• Ryan Reynolds sacrificed his ‘Deadpool’ (2016) salary in order to get the first film in the superhero franchise made. In order to get the film through production with 20th Century Fox, he personally paid for his writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to be on set which resulted in leaving him without a salary.

  

• In 2008, Ryan Reynolds ran the New York City Marathon for his father who suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

  

• In 2014, Ryan Reynolds was awarded a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto, Ontario.

  

• In 2015, he was involved in a hit-and-run accident during the filming of ‘Deadpool’ (2016) in Canada. While walking through a parking garage, he was hit by the car of a paparazzo who then fled the scene. Ryan sustained minor injuries.

• In the same year, he went Trick-or-Treating with children as the character Deadpool in order to promote his role as the title character in ‘Deadpool’ (2016).

  

• In 2017, Ryan Reynolds was merited a place in Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People’ issue with an homage written by the English actress Dame Helen Mirren.

• Ryan admitted that he did not enjoy working in the American superhero film titled ‘Green Lantern’ (2011) due to his poor relationship with the director Martin Campbell.

• He also mentioned that the film Green Lantern’s (2011) critical and financial failure was a huge relief because he didn’t want to play the character of Hal Jordan again.

  

• Talking about him missing his salary for the film to be released, Ryan was quoted saying in an interview that
  

  I even let go of getting paid to do the movie just to put it back on the screen. They wouldn’t allow my co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick on set, so I took the little salary I had left and paid them to be on set with me so we could form a de facto writers room.”

• In 2015, Ryan’s father passed away after suffering from Parkinson’s disease for many years.

• In 2016, Ryan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California.

• In 2018, Ryan Reynolds started the production company named ‘Maximum Effort’ and he signed a three-year first-look deal with the American broadcasting network named ‘Fox.’

• In the same year, Ryan acquired a stake in the international Gin brand named ‘Aviation American Gin.’

  

• Ryan became a U.S. citizen in 2018.

• In 2019, Ryan Reynolds was named the face of Armani Code leading with a campaign for their Absolu scent.

  

• In the same year, he purchased an ownership stake in the mobile virtual network operator company named ‘Mint Mobile.’ Ryan is estimated to own between 20% and 25% of Mint Mobile company.

• Before Ryan Reynolds became the co-owner of the ‘Mint Mobile,’ the founder of Mint Mobile David Glickman along with Ryan used to serve on the board of directors for the US non-profit organization named ‘The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research’ which aimed at finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

  

• In 2020, Ryan’s international Gin brand named ‘Aviation American Gin’ was sold to the British multinational alcoholic beverage company named ‘Diageo’ for $610 million.

• In the same year, he joined the board of directors team of the American internet and technology company named ‘Match Group.’

• In 2020, Ryan along with the American actor Rob McElhenney took over the Wrexham, Wales-based professional association football club named ‘Wrexham Association Football Club’ after receiving the backing of the Wrexham Supporters Trust.

• Ryan Reynolds and his wife are close friends with the American singer Taylor Swift. In 2020, in the song titled ‘Betty,’ Taylor Swift named the characters after Ryan and Blake’s daughters.

  

• In 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK approved their takeover of Wrexham Association Football Club.

  

• In the same year, Ryan Reynolds announced that he was taking ‘a little sabbatical’ from his work after the production of the American Christmas musical comedy film titled ‘Spirited’ (2022).

  

• In the same year, the marketing division of Ryan’s production company named ‘Maximum Effort Production’ was spun off as a separate company and it was acquired by MNTN Software.

• In 2024, Ryan Reynolds confirmed that Taylor Swift is the godmother to his three daughters.

• In the same year, Ryan Reynolds’ film ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ and his wife Blake Lively’s film ‘It Ends With Us’ occupied the number one and number two spots at the box office during the August 9–11 weekend in 2024.

  

• It made Ryan and his wife Blake Lively to be the first married Hollywood couple to have two separate films they starred in lead at the box office on the same weekend since Bruce Willis and Demi Moore in 1990.

• Ryan Reynolds has been suffering from anxiety for a long time and in 2018, he carried out many interviews in the character of ‘Deadpool’ to alleviate his fears. In 2024, in an interview, Ryan expressed how his anxiety makes him ‘quiet’ and ‘shy’ except when he is acting.

• He first became a fan of Deadpool when he found a comic where Deadpool describes himself as looking like “Ryan Reynolds crossed with a Shar-Pei.” That instance made him interested in the project even more.

• Ryan Reynolds is one of the few actors to star in films based on comic books from both the Marvel Comics’ ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ (2009) and the ‘Deadpool’ (2016) and DC Comics’ ‘Green Lantern’ (2011) catalogues.

  

• Ryan Reynolds was the only actor to appear in all 65 episodes of the American TV series titled ‘Hillside’ (1990). He and Chris William Martin are the only two actors who appeared in both the first and the last episodes of the TV series.

• In 2020, Ryan Reynolds Reynolds was among a group of celebrities who read an instalment of Roald Dahl’s children’s fantasy novel titled ‘James and the Giant Peach’ in aid of the global non-profit charity ‘Partners In Health.’

  

• In the same year, Ryan offered $5000 and a shipment of liquor from his Aviation Gin company for the return of a Vancouver woman’s stolen teddy bear named ‘Build-A-Bear’ which contained a recording of the woman’s late mother saying “I love you” in Filipino. The teddy bear was returned within four days.

• In 2021, Ryan Reynolds became part of an investor group led by the venture capital firm named ‘Greylock Partners’ that made a $750 million investment into the Canadian online investment management service company named ‘Wealthsimple.’

• Ryan’s exact ownership amount in ‘Wealthsimple’ was not disclosed but was estimated to be around CA$5 billion.

• In 2022, Ryan Reynolds was part of a group of investors who participated in a Series C funding round that made a $620 million investment into the Canadian software company named ‘1Password.’

• In the same year, Ryan Reynolds took an equity stake in the American streaming TV service named ‘FuboTV.’

• After acquiring an equity stake in FuboTV, Ryan, his production company ‘Maximum Effort’ studio, and Fubo announced a co-production partnership that included the launch of the ‘Maximum Effort Network’ on FuboTV.

• After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ryan pledged to ‘match up’ to $1 million for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.

• In 2022, Ryan Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively made a donation amounting to $500,000 to ‘Water First’ in order to provide Indigenous people in Canada with clean water and provide training to young people to become professional technicians in environmental issues.

• In 2023, the company ‘T-Mobile’ announced that it was acquiring ‘Ka’ena Corporation’ which was the parent company of Mint Mobile which was owned by Ryan Reynolds. The deal was valued at up to $1.35 billion.

• In the same year, it was announced by the Canadian payments technology company ‘Nuvei’ that Ryan Reynolds made an investment in the company.

• In 2023, Ryan Reynolds and actor Rob McElhenney became part of an investor group that bought a 24% equity stake in the Formula One Alpine F1 Team.

• In 2024, Ryan and his wife voluntarily contributed a relief fund of $1 million to assist the States as a result of the Hurricanes Helene and Milton in Florida and some other parts of the U.S. Their contribution was made through a non-profit organisation called ‘Feeding American.’

• Ryan Reynolds loves to spend time with animals and he often shares photos with his pet dog on social media.

  

• Ryan Reynolds has been cast in many English films and some of them include ‘Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle’ (2004), ‘Ted’ (2012), ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ (2017), ‘The Adam Project’ (2022), and ‘IF’ (2024).

  

• Ryan Reynolds has been part of many American TV series and some of them are ‘Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story’ (1995), ‘Two Guys and a Girl’ (2001), ‘School of Life’ (2005), ‘Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time’ (2020), and ‘American Auto’ (2023).

  

• He has been part of many digital videos games and some of them include ‘Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters’ (2011), ‘Marvel Strike Force’ (2018), ‘Fortnite Battle Royale’ (2021-2024), and ‘FIFA 23’ (2022).

  

• Ryan Reynolds has been part of many music videos and some of them include ‘Threw It on the Ground’ (2009), ‘Ashes’ (2018), ‘You Need to Calm Down’ (2019), and ‘Chk Chk Boom’ (2004).