Willie gets together with Ryan Reynolds as his latest "Deadpool" movie becomes the highest grossing R-rated movie in history. Ryan also opens up about his late father’s experience with Parkinson's disease and the toll it took on his family
Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
Ryan Reynolds on "Deadpool" Success and His Late Father's Parkinson's Diagnosis
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With the man of the moment in Hollywood, he is Ryan Reynolds. His film, Deadpool and Wolverine, recently became the single highest grossing R-rated film in the history of Hollywood. No R-rated movie ever made has made more money than did Deadpool and Wolverine, which co-stars his real life buddy, Hugh Jackman. If you don't know the story about Deadpool, Ryan of course, has had a great career before Deadpool, lots of romantic comedies and other films. But he really wanted to make this movie about a comic book character that he knew called Deadpool, that had kind of a cult following. Couldn't get a studio to get behind it and ultimately had some, well, let's say test footage, animated test footage made a couple of minutes of what the movie might look like. Mysteriously, as you'll hear us discuss in a second, that footage found its way onto the internet and fans went crazy demanding a standalone Deadpool movie. They got it. The first one in 2016 became a hit, two more since and now this record smashing edition, this summer in Deadpool and Wolverine. You know, Ryan, I'm not going to get big wind up on who he is, a great guy, a guy I've known for just over a decade and we bonded because both of our fathers have Parkinson's disease. We're both on the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation and he's given so much of his time and his fame and his platform to helping the cause, to trying to find a cure along with the great Michael J. Fox for Parkinson's disease. So we talk a bit about a new campaign. He's working on to raise some awareness about Parkinson's. We talk about our dads. We talk about our mutual friend, Michael J. Fox and a lot about movies and a lot about Deadpool. And by the way, the competition this summer with his wife Blake Lively in her movie at the box office, it ends with us. So sit back, relax and please enjoy Ryan Reynolds right now on the Sunday sit down podcast. Thanks for doing this man, good to see you. Thanks for having me, nice to see you as well. I feel like I'm catching you as you've just come back to the beach of this tidal wave of Deadpool and Wolverine, which even I think you would admit has exceeded all of your expectations with how popular it is and how part of the culture it's become. What does it feel like to kind of be on the other side of it like giving everything you put into it? I think, well, you know, it feels good. You know, those things are always a little anticlimactic. I think because there's the sort of outcome, which everybody's mostly invested in. It doesn't totally match with the inner experience, which is that I miss making the movie. And I miss being, I miss, I just miss working on it because it never ends. When you shoot one of those movies that you never stop writing, you never stop pushing, you never stop trying to improve. And you keep doing that because they say, you know, it's an old expression, you don't finish a movie, you abandon it. In our case, you know, myself and Sean Levy, that we didn't necessarily finish the movie. It was pride out of our hammerlock death grip in an edit room because it was time. And yeah, even now, I've seen it in a couple of premieres where I still have things I wish I could just, you know. Is it always that way though? Will you make a movie? No, no, it isn't. It is, it is, because I can make a movie where I just show up and act and I leave and I, you know, check my coat at the door and that's it. You know, and then there's other movies, you know, like this where it's just, it's a reason it's been six years, I think, since the last one. It's just, it's a full court press and it is relentless and it is a game of inches in detail. And I love that, but it's so immersive. It's just hard to be a dad, a husband and somebody who's producing and writing and performing in a movie, it's a little intense. The other two Deadpool movies were huge. I mean, they were big movies, but this feels like something even bigger than that. Does it feel that way from where you're sitting in the terms of the resonance and the way it's connecting with people? Yeah, I think to have a movie that, you know, I've been here before when Deadpool 1 was, you know, started as kind of a curiosity, you know, and it really benefited in that moment from an underdog story to Deadpool 2, which certainly isn't an underdog story, but I thought it was fun to explore something a little bit more emotional. And then to this, which seems to have gone to this whole other kind of level in our zeitgeist that I was not expecting. I don't ever think about this when they start to prognosticate on what it might do or what tracking and all that kind of stuff. I would say like the greatest cinematic villain ever written is expectation and her [bleep] twin brother tracking. So, you know, it's that I sort of keep that something and also, you know, at this point where we are with the movie and everything that's happened around it and it becoming the biggest, you know, our rated film ever, I am at an age where I can -- I actually know what to do with that. Like, I'm actually at an age where I can -- I feel like I can process that. I feel like I can enjoy that. I don't know that I could have when I was younger or all. That's interesting. What does that mean exactly? What is something about emotionally where you are right now? Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, I'm 47. I'm starting to kind of see, you know, that I -- it's very apparent that life is fleeting and fast and too fast for the most part. You know, I've got some mileage under me. I have a family. And by having a family, I feel like I'm sort of playing with the house's money sometimes. So, it allows me some -- these fleeting glimpses of objectivity around what's happening. And I see that this movie struck a chord with people. And I see that the intention with which we entered into this storytelling process, not to over-mathologize it's, you know, this character or this movie. But -- but went into it with, like, let's make this something that is just -- just a fastball of joy for audiences. Let's make something that is like anti-cinnicism, pure optimism, bathtubs of serotonin onto the brains, and -- and something that is complete, and something that is not a commercial for another movie. There isn't some tag at the end that says, you know, stay tuned, because the story unfolds even more. You know, I want people to go and have a full and complete experience and walk out of the theater, like, you know, walking on sunshine. I mean, genuinely, just -- and, you know, the friendship that I have with you and with Sean Levy, you know, and that sort of trio is something that I miss every day. Like, I miss just being on sets. We hang out and we talk every day. But it was fun last week walking around -- I walked around New York City with Hugh, and it was wild to walk around. It felt like we maybe saved a baby from a burning building or something. It was like, you know, it was just a movie, so it's like, let's not get crazy here. But it was pretty wild. People really, really found a lot of love and joy and happiness in the movie, and that's the thing I'm most proud of. It is joy. And as I mentioned, I saw it yesterday morning at 11.45 a.m. on IMAX. What a time to see it. It was hot. Hot. Yeah. I was like, are you guys open? So, it was me and maybe a couple other guys scattered throughout the theater, and it was pure joy from the minute I don't want to give anything away, because a lot of people are still going to see it from that opening scene. Yeah, it just starts happening. I'm not even going to say what happens because people need to go see it. People know, but, you know, you also have to see it where you go to hear everything. I've never seen it where you get to hear all the -- Oh, I've certainly sat in that room for 600 years working on the movie, so I know everything that's in it. But being in theater experiences with folks attending, you don't hear half the stuff because they're laughing over the joke before, and you miss it. Right. It's kind of cool to see it. No, it was incredible. I got it all. So, does it mean a lot to you that this will be the highest-grossing, R-rated movie in the history of films? Is that something you couldn't have expected it again? Yeah. Is that something a little feather in the cap? Yeah. I mean, I don't want to -- I don't want to place over-emphasize the importance of that, because I don't think it's actually important. But I do think it is an important testament to theaters, and that experience of collective effervescence, which is this idea that you're in a movie theater, you're sitting there next to other people, whether they're -- you know, we live in a world where everything's divided. I'm this, you're that, you know, them versus us. And, you know, sports and movies, the two things that they have in common that I think are really beautiful and powerful is that they bring people together. In smart, fun, in unexpected ways, and they allow people to have an experience together that celebrates togetherness, like nothing else. And, you know, I love that when you go see a sporting event or go see a movie, it doesn't matter what color shirt you're wearing, what you do, what you think, what your belief system is, any of that stuff. It's -- we're all watching the same thing. We're all enjoying the same thing. We're all having the same experience. And that's collective effervescence to me. That's that high you get from that experience. And I love that the movie reinforces that thesis, which, you know, we've basically known for 100 years since the Lumiere Brothers, but we still, I think, need to be reminded of it now and again. It's so funny you say that. I told it. I just got back from the Olympics. And I had the thought there of, like, oh, right, this is who we are. Yeah. This bond we're feeling and this arena right now. And then I went to your movie, and I think the success of it is a commentary about what people want, which is they want to feel joy. They want to be together. So in these times, we're just, like you say, right down the middle. And we're being told we're divided. And maybe we're not actually divided. It's what things we are. So movies, sports, and music, right? Those are the places we can go together. We're working with people. I love working with people who have different ideals and different kind of ideas of life. And I just think it's interesting to meet it with curiosity as opposed to, you know, finding some sort of binary kind of way of expressing it or finding some sort of placing a value judgment. Yeah. I don't know. As I get older, I think a better observation as opposed to evaluation. Yeah. Like constantly evaluating everything and everyone. Right. And like, when you just observe, I find my stress level goes down. I find I'm a little bit less of a **** personally. Yeah. Thank God. Finally got to that. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. You knew you'd crack me, guys. You got it. Hey, guys. Thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Ryan Reynolds right after the break. At KeyBank, we know a small moment like... Huh. What's it like to have a yard? Can lead to an even bigger question like... Am I ready to buy a home? And that's the type of moment where we'll meet you. Prepare to talk about everything you need to know when applying for a mortgage, so you can try to turn those backyard dreams into reality. Paul? Yes? Question. Are you a hammock person? You know, I think I might be. For every financial need, we'll meet you in the moment. KeyBank opens doors. NML is 399797 Equal Housing Lender. Some mysteries can be solved by looking at the facts, but in some cases, answers lie in the unknown. I'm Ashley Flowers, and each week on my podcast, so supernatural, we explore some of the world's most bizarre occurrences and unravel their possible explanations no matter how strange. Because sometimes, to get to the truth, you have to look beyond what we know to be reality. Listen to so supernatural now, wherever you get your podcasts. Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest, but let me play devil's advocate here. Let's eat. So, no, that's a good thing. That's definitely not a problem. Reese's, you did it. You stumped this charming devil. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Ryan Reynolds. I was thinking about the, almost 10 years, 10 years ago, this summer is when somebody leaked video online. Yeah, we're good at it. We're just taking this person down here. Last time we talked, and it's been a while. I've got my best man on it. He doesn't seem like that great of a man. He's not great. No, he's not good at the job. Spinalous, just a human jellyfish. Just taking your money. 10 years now, this retainer is out of control. But that's been 10 years, and I was thinking about you the way this movie has done. Sort of putting yourself out there. This is a pivot point in your career and your life, honestly. Yeah. And to see it succeed this way from where you were 10 years ago, just hoping somebody would like the video that was leaked online. That's going to have to be an amazingly gratifying thing. Yeah, it changed my life. You know, I mean, part of like, also like, I mean, I've done a lot of more so a while ago, like a lot of different kind of work. And I've worked in movies that I think are really good. I mean, they're really well crafted films that maybe didn't make any money or that, but like, might have been like, you know, celebrated critically, or audiences might have really loved it, but like it just different whatever isn't in Catch Fire. But I loved, I was, this is the first time I was really gratified by returning the investment that someone made in me. And I thought like that was kind of something I wanted to kind of carry with me as I kept moving forward. And my career and part of how that happened I think was authorship, was having some authorship over how the story's told or how this little tale or this little piece of IP that I'm lucky enough to play with, how it's shaped. And that changed my life. Deadpool changed my life in that way. Yeah, I mean, no company, even Disney deserves to make a billion dollars off of a comic book movie. But hey, I mean, I am proud of the fact that not the money part of it, but I'm proud of the fact that that is a testament to butts in seats and people coming to see something that you worked on harder than maybe anything in my life. And as you said, part of the joy is working with your dear friend, Hugh on this. I was looking back at an interview I did with him six years or so ago. And you had kind of floated the idea of this maybe out there. I always heard it. And he shut it down so fast. He said, "Nobody wants to see Wolverine again. Maybe a cameo. We're not doing a movie." And here we are. So how did you get him around to it? Well, he always publicly messed with each other a lot, but he was always, he'd announced his retirement from Logan three days before Deadpool 1 came out. And he saw it and he kind of went, "Oh, that would have been fun to see that." And it was just this kind of thought that kind of flew in and out of his mind every now and again. But then we always see each other. I mean, he and I have very thoughtful conversations. We go for a lot of walks in New York and just chat. It's one of my favorite things to do in the world, probably like once or twice a week when we're both in town. We're like, you know, out doing that. And we always talk about it. We always talk about like, "Oh man, there's just got to be a way to do this." And, you know, one of the first pitches I'd crafted for Kevin Feige was, in fact, a Wolverine Deadpool film that was told in the style of "Roshman," you know, a first act that is through Deadpool's point of view, Second Act through. Wolverine's point of view on the Third Act being subjective. And that's the hero's tale of the Third Act. And I was really excited about it. Marvel just wasn't ready. They just couldn't quite wrap their heads around how we would resurrect this iconic and legendary character after a masterpiece like Logan, the movie Logan that James Mangold did. And I said, "Who f*ck cares about a masterpiece?" Well, let's just dig up his old man river bones and, you know, stabs and bad guys. So, yeah, it just came about with, out of frustration, really. I mean, on August 14th, 2022, he stopped his car on the L.I.E. and called me. And, you know, when somebody calls in this day and age, you're like, "Are you dead?" You've died, but you're talking. What's happening here? Where do they have you? They're holding a gun to your head. It was that kind of thing. And he was like, "I want to come back. I just want to do it." You know? So he really kind of authored his own return. And then, ironically, I had a meeting that day with Kevin Feige on a Zoom. Sean Levy and I, we were going to pitch him our sort of last gasp pitch because we just tried to find something that would work. And, you know, and then we were going to say, "We're going to punt." Sean and I were going to say, "We're going to go do another movie. We've both written one already that was ready to go and we'll revisit Deadpool later." But he would call that day. And I just pitched it. But it's a real testament to that fake until you make it thing. Because I pitched a story out of, like, it came right out of my butt. Like, I had no, I did no plan for it. But this idea of a wolverine comes back. He's not the same wolverine. He's maybe the worst wolverine. And his suit isn't just a suit. It's a hair shirt. You know, it's his own kind of, you know, punishment. His suit is basically his punishment. And that's what he's wearing. It's his shame. And I loved that. And it all kind of came about just bullshit on the Zoom. Suddenly we were, like, locked in. We're text messaging underneath the Zoom. Like, that's the story. That's going to work. And then, yeah. And then we took a lot of directions from Hugh as well, who's known as character better than anybody. I tell you what, scary to write, right, wolverine dialogue is like the scariest thing I've ever done in my life. So you basically, like, blacked out on a Zoom. And on the other side of that was... Yeah, like that moment in old school with Will Ferrell. Exactly. I mean, speaks, like, like, algebra fluently. In the debate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I forget what we got. Something like that was a debate. So I know how Hollywood works. This feels like a good end to Deadpool. But if you make a billion dollars, they want more. Do we feel like Deadpool has a future? I don't know. Like, I'm not being coy. I genuinely don't know. I do know that Deadpool tends to work best utilizing scarcity and surprise, I think. So I don't know. It has to be the right reason. So this is kind of ticked every box that I would ever know for the character. Also, I think that Deadpool is a born supporting character. I don't think he's actually meant to be a lead protagonist. He works, operates much better as a supporting character. So I could see that. I could see, like, popping it. I do, like, writing these in this world. So I would love to keep doing that. Be it Deadpool's involvement or no involvement. I don't know. But I don't know. I don't know. I have no plans at the moment. I'm not making that up. I know people always say, "Oh, you guys are arguing." Nope. I didn't mean to rush you along. Let's celebrate this one for a minute. Like, this is great. Thanks, Bob. Yeah. Thank you. Which you enjoyed for two days. Yeah, that's not exactly. I think we're going to take some time off and just rest and recoup and be parents. And as you may know, you're not the only one in your home with a very successful movie right now. Yes. You and Blake won two with the box office. It ends with us, yeah. Incredible film, incredible performance by her. I mean, amazing. Yeah. I don't know. It just seems like one of those something is, "Are we in a sim?" Like, I don't understand what's happening here. And just so unbelievably proud of how she's navigated that film and really kind of dug into the sort of core values that she sees in this character of a woman who contains multitudes and a woman who is not defined by anyone transgression, a man made that she still gets to experience her joy and complexity and all of these things. She really grabbed onto some ideas that dumb-dumb over here never would have grasped, I think, and I was like, "Oh God, that is interesting to portray a character who isn't just rooted in this victim mindset, to portray somebody who has had something terrible happen to them, but somebody who can rise above that and like see that you're not going to be defined by this thing, you still get to be who you choose to be, you get to have your joy and your multifaceted life." And I thought it was such a fascinating and smart direction. Yeah. It was where I'm really excited for her. I'm really excited for, you know, all those folks around us. Pretty great. Despite your successful and happy marriage, your famously vicious professional rivals. So did you say to her, "I beat you by that much at the box office?" Every time in my life I've ever dreamt of coming in second. That would have been, yeah. And there are moments, like the numbers are always different. They're like Friday she beat us, Saturday, we beat her, and they're like, "Yeah." So Monday, today, they beat us. So I love that. But I just like, "Yeah." No, I think that's like the sign of a good relationship. Beat a friendship or a marriage or anything is rooting for each other. It's always been one kind of constant with Blake and I, is that we really root for each other. And I think that I never really realized it till recently. I think that's a hallmark of a good relationship, of a healthy relationship, wanting someone else to win. Like Hugh, I mean, when I'm being friends with you, I want him to win. I want to see him succeed, I want to see him grow and kick-ass and I love that. I love that people do grow and change as I was sort of like I was thinking about this last night a bit, like, you know, you, everyone sort of feels like people don't change, people don't, you know. But I actually believe that they really do. I was thinking about some of the stories I have about myself. I think about some of the like just head-scratching mistakes that I've made in my life and that how lucky I've been to have the runway to grow from those and the opportunity to learn from many of those mistakes. And I think about the stories I have of myself when I'm younger. And it's, and it changes. My dad is a great example too. Like I have stories about my dad that I've held on to forever and I have to revisit them because I have to ask myself, is that true? Like, is it that black and white, is it that, you know, and it's not, you know, so people do change. You change, you actually can change your own past, I think in that way too, as you look back and actually sort of try to understand how did I utilize the story I had for myself or the story I had about my dad in order to make something else make sense, you know. Yeah. It's interesting. This, what becomes almost family mythology, yeah. And then you get to a certain age and you start thinking, was that what I thought it was? Did that happen the way I remember it? Yeah. Or the myth doesn't actually make sense now that I think about it. You go back and investigate the myth and kind of pull it apart a little bit and maybe people don't know but something you and I share is that both of our dads have or had Parkinson's disease. It's kind of how we first got to know each other through the Michael J. Fox Foundation. And we're coming up almost a decade since your dad passed away. Yeah, 2015. Yeah. Yeah. Coming up on that anyway. As you sit now and look back on your dad's journey through Parkinson's, what do you think now at this point in your life? I think, I don't think about his disease really. I don't ever think about, I think about, I think about how I sort of shaped our relationship, the narrative of our relationship and I see so much more, I see, I see as I've gotten older and I'm a father. So many things I, the brush I painted my father with. The idea that he screwed this thing up or he always did this and never did this. This stuff says, I don't know if that's true, you know, and I think the things that I did not like about my father are actually the things that I didn't like about me. And I think he's an easy dartboard for that. So like, and the man made mistakes, trust, I'm not saying that he didn't, I'm not paving over that, you know, those moments with some sort of fairy tale, but I also know that like it is not that simple. And it's taught me a lot of lessons in life in general, just like how, you know, how my own perception of people in the world isn't as reliable as maybe I like to think. So what brought you around to that, Ryan? Was it having your own kids and evaluating what that meant to be a father? Yeah, I think I always had a fear that I would be, you know, my dad was a mystery to me, right? So he didn't, I didn't really ever have, I think like conversations with him. Like conversations is where I felt like we were really talking like he's showing me who he is as a person or his core value system really is or, you know, he sort of spoke in catchphrases, you know, it's like a strange kind of thing. And I, I, as I've become a, as I've grown into fatherhood and, you know, kind of grown into it and understanding that like the last great loves I will ever have are my kids, you know, I am, I see those things coming out, like I see how I am not necessarily him. And in, in that relief that came with that allowed me to kind of revisit the past and go, well, what, you know, what, how, what did I, how, why did I do that? Why did I romanticize this man as being kind of deficient as a father or, you know, I knew those things. And for sure there were moments that, you know, I look back and like that was not good, not good parenting at all. But there are a lot of moments where I think, I think other things too where like, well, he's there. You know, he's like guys there. He's always there at the football game. He's always there at the baseball game. Even if he wasn't speaking to me about something, he was still there and his trench coat crossed the way, working his **** off every single day for his four kids and, you know, we didn't have any money, but, but we had a roof of our head and we had, you know, some food in the fridge and like, that's enough when you could look back at it. And I also think like all those, I don't know if you have this too, but you think about every experience you've had good in battle. They all led to hear, right? So like, you're like, oh, do you have any regrets or do you, would you go back and change something? Not even my worst mistakes. They offered me these crazy avenues of learning. And I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't **** up in those moments or screw up. Yeah, totally agree. No, totally agree. I mean, it's, I was reading through your sort of, your dad's story and my gosh, is it almost shot for shot? Our story, which is diagnosed at a pretty young age. My dad was 47. 47? Yeah. Yeah. And denial for a long time. Yeah. In fact, we didn't name it for a long time. No. I was a teenager, so I didn't think through it enough. But that age, that age group too, I think is very prideful and like, you know, I didn't that's right. My dad might have said Parkinson's I think three times. Wow. Yeah. It is entire life. It's to me. But at West, it's a little more, you know, they didn't have therapists in the town where he lived. No, no, no. But, but the idea that it took years before we named it. Yeah. And there was always the neurological thing like that as a neural. And then finally my sister, I was like, is the neurologically Parkinson's disease? Yes. The Michael J. Fox. Yeah. And they go, well, yes, it is. So that was kind of your experience as well. Absolutely. But I can also see why neurological condition might sound a little bit less threatening or vulnerable than Parkinson's disease or disease, you know. It was my experience exactly to a T. Like you and I, your pop, I mean, we, yeah, that's the same exact same roadmap. And I understand it. You know, I get it. My dad was like a prideful kind of guy. I think his physical strength was his, was a huge asset to him. You know, he didn't go to college. He didn't do that. All those things that like, you know, he wanted for us to do. And boy, did I let him down there. But he, yeah, he was very prideful. And that's a, that's a, I think that is very common in that, yeah, that age group and those folks who, you know, lived in that, grew up in that era, you know, and it's interesting to see like how now like we, you know, having kids at our age and are, you know, it's just so different. There's so many tools available to us. There's so many like resources available to, you know, my kids never believe it. But, you know, when Blake and I will go out for dinner or something like that, the entire time is spent talking about how could we be better parents? Like, how could we like address their needs and wait, it was just like, I can't even imagine my parents having those conversations without, right? Yeah. Just going, Oh God, this feels like chemotherapy. The cancer's gone. Let's enjoy dinner. Let's just live in here forever. So we go to these restaurants and sit at that table and just talk about our kids for two hours. Pictures and videos of our kids. Exactly. Crazy. That's who we are. That's what we do. So you, you're teaming up with Acadia pharmaceuticals and because of some of the things you saw in your father and your mom saw in your father over the years and you think it's important that people look for some of these signs. Yeah. You know, it's working with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for so many years as well. Just like I got, you know, sometimes it's like drinking information out of a fire hose, and you kind of get a lot of information quite quickly. And this is one disease where I think, you know, there's an enormous sort of leapfrog effect in the knowledge people have about how it works. What is, you know, what are some of these other symptoms around it? And a lot of this is based in wishing that I had some kind of resource when my dad was sort of at the apex of his disease and sickness and if I'd understood some of these symptoms, I mean, you know, the fact that my dad was experiencing hallucinations and he was experiencing, you know, delusional thoughts. And I didn't, I had no idea that I just kind of cast it as, oh, he's losing his marbles. Yeah, he's losing his nice, he's, yeah, his mind is kind of going, you know, and that's a, I would be horrified if somebody, you know, did that with me, you know, I'd be horrified if people sort of just, you know, through this sort of like pedantic, kind of dog bone diagnosis out like that, and I wish we'd known, like I wish we'd known that that was a side effect. And if, you know, because it's like, I think it's nearly half of all Parkinson's patients experience this. And had I known, I think I, I would have handled it better. I think I would have been a much more patient person. I think my father would have felt way less alone. I mean, you know, especially the last few years of his life, he's so isolated. I mean, it was just because he was not, he had no kind of, didn't seem like he had too much of a grip on reality. And of course, Parkinson's, it's advanced, it's I'm not sure if your dad is there where you can't really hear his voice very well and when you do hear it, it's, I don't understand where he is in his mind. So he must have just felt horribly alone. And I was so kind of limp. I had no idea how to, you know, how to, how to help him or talk to him even, you know, and I found that I kind of shot him out a little bit and I, so I look back at it with some, you know, some, not regret so much as just wishing I'd known some of this stuff before. No, there might have been, you know, I don't think this, there were treatments available for this particular symptom back then, but there are now and, you know, I said it's my brother a while ago, he had a knee replacement surgery. I was like, it's nice getting a knee replacement surgery in 2024 and not 1986, you know, like it's, you know, and we'll say that again about 2045, you know, and go, so I think that's not 2024, you know, but here and now there's like amazing things happening and, you know, amazing science and treatments and all kinds of stuff. So really it's just about sharing that story and letting people know that like you're not really alone in it. Like it's, you don't have to have the same experience I had or my mom had or my brother's had. You can, you know, you can really, you know, actually affect some change. Yeah. And even just hearing you say it, maybe they can identify it. Oh, this is something specific that we can do something about instead of having the reaction that I would have had and you had, which is like, I don't know what to do. Seems like it's losing it. Stick around for more my conversation with Ryan Reynolds right after a quick break. At KeyBank, we know a small moment like, oh, these sandals would go really well with a beach. Can lead to an even bigger question like, should I splurge on a trip this year? And that's the type of moment where we'll meet you with financial advice on everything from budgeting for travel to building savings. So maybe that destination isn't too far off. What do you think, Cindy? I think these sunglasses would go well with a tiny umbrella drink. For every financial need, we'll meet you in the moment. KeyBank opens doors. KeyBank member FDIC. Some mysteries can be solved by looking at the facts, but in some cases, answers lie in the unknown. I'm Ashley Flowers, and each week on my podcast, so supernatural, we explore some of the world's most bizarre occurrences and unravel their possible explanations, no matter how strange. Because sometimes, to get to the truth, you have to look beyond what we know to be reality. Going to so supernatural now, wherever you get your podcasts. Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest, but let me play devil's advocate here. Let's eat. So, no, that's a good thing. That's definitely not a problem. Reese's you did it. You stumped this charming devil. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Ryan Reynolds. Your mom, your wonderful mother, is an important part of this effort. As well. I don't think people fully appreciate the role of the spouse, the caregiver, the toll it takes on her as well. Caregiver's fatigue. Caregiver's fatigue. My mom is the same way. I get emotional talking about it because, man, they go through it in a way that if you're not there every day, you don't fully appreciate. I get emotional thinking about it too, but the amount of difficulty and pain and isolation she felt that she just kind of swallowed down and never, and I don't really want to get into what hallucinations or what kind of delusional experiences my father was having as a result of this disease because I don't want it to feel anecdotal, but I do know and I can't say with some degree of confidence that it was very traumatic for my mother. She would never say a word to any of us, but I could hear it in her voice and I remember feeling when you just prod a little bit more and then it comes out and I remember her having just the worst time, just being in actual hell and I just remember flu. I was living in L.A. many, many, many years ago and I flew home and it was packed with her stuff and we were going, let's go. This is not going to spend another day doing this. Not because you're not qualified to do this. And that was I think a turning point for her, it was a turning point for her own agency to remember that she's alive and vital and for me too, just to be able to pay that forward with my mom who's always been there, but has always been kind of a source of a wellspring of compassion and she's the reason I'm tactile with my kids and it's when you experience that when you're younger you share that with your own kids and it's yeah. That was a big moment for you to do that because there's pride on that side of the relationship too, like this is our house, I'm going to take care of this even though there's a lot of pain associated with it, we don't need your help and they get sort of cocoonish about it. Well good for you for doing this, it's so important to identify that stuff. Do you think it sounds like you've done a good job of remembering the guy your dad was before Parkinson's and not like you said it right at the outset, not associating him with Parkinson's but getting back to who he was because that's, I struggle with that sometimes because it's been 30 years and my dad is hilarious and so quick and all the things he is and we start to lose some of that, like the recency blocks out the past is totally 100% and memories are so weird and abstract but I think if the memories of my father, they're not like an intellectual thing, they're a DNA thing, like I see that some of the gifts I got from my father are, I would rather lose with integrity than win with **** and that was something that was just who my dad fundamentally was, it was a guy that had integrity in a North Star and I will never forget that, I have a million examples in the back of a catalog of my brain of him showing that and it wasn't performative, it wasn't doing it to show his sons, this is just who he was and a guy that understood the value of living within your means and helping and giving back to a certain degree and so some of those things that he imbued in me, those are my memories, my memories are acted out in my life and the parts of myself that I'm most proud of, our real elements of my dad and his stamp and my mom certainly as well and so I feel him with me and all of that stuff. And I see it in my kids too which helps, it comes back to life again like oh, your sense of humor is like my dad's, you know what I mean, they're lucky to have their grandparents around so they see it but it's there. But how, I mean genuinely too, like even if life wasn't perfect and it wasn't perfect in my house at all, it's chaos a lot of times but every sort of maladaptive or adaptive survival mechanism we all have are results of that, that insipid burghu of weird domestic life in the 80s in our blue collar homes and I wouldn't trade it for the world and I really wouldn't. Lane did you right here? Yeah, I mean it did, it all roads led to here and I think, yeah I think about that really often. I think it's why I wasn't swallowed alive by the, you know, the show business a long time ago is because I came into it with a kind of a sense that like this is not totally real. Like, and a sort of a heart in my hard drive is a like a constant sort of usurping my own belief in who and what I am. So there's no, you know, like I would say that somebody, when they say something awful to me, I'm like, you can't hurt me. You can't say anything worse to me than I say to myself every single day, right? And some of that comes from growing up in a household like that and so I think it's why I'm, I have a good head on my shoulders now. Yeah. Before I let you go, can we just say a word about our mutual friend Michael J. Fox? Mm hmm. We're both on the board of the foundation. We both run the marathon. We've put the foundation. Yes. We've done all those things but man, it's hard to overstate the impact he's had obviously with the foundation but just on a personal level of being able to point to him, talk about a North Star and say, that's how you do it. You keep going. Yeah. You look for something better down the road for people who are coming after you. I just, I get emotional thinking about him too because he has for both of us, I think, been somewhere to look when it feels overwhelming. Yeah. And I think what he's done is a great cultural judo move to redirect energy into something that made millions of people not just in America or Canada, all of the world feel less alone. Like when one of the most powerful people in show business is willing to really just reshape their entire existence in life to create a resource that is inexhaustible, that is dynamic, that helps everybody, not just the people who have Parkinson's but the people who live with the people who have Parkinson's and it's one of the things with this initiative as well. Michael's website at his foundation is a huge resource but also moretaparkensons.com which is part of the initiative that I'm talking about with my mom is another just wellspring of information and resources and help for families everywhere, not just the people that are suffering from this disease but the friends, the family, the caregivers, everyone. Well Michael's like a genuine trailblazer and how many people get to say they're a trailblazer in several different industries. The second one I think is as important, I wouldn't even define, it would be lazy to define Michael as a movie star or even a philanthropist, he's a multitude of things and what he did I think has changed people's lives left, right and center and I think was incredibly brave and he embraced the vulnerability that I think a lot of people would struggle with especially someone in the public eye, you don't get to be as fallible in that space and it's not encouraged to be human and say I'm falling apart, I'm not feeling right. And watching still the Davis-Duggenheim doc on Michael, if you see still, if you're going to see one doc, still Michael J. Fox's story is just so beautifully told and I love him, I just like really genuinely love him, he's got it like or we orbit each other every year or two, we come a lot closer and I have just some of the best experiences with him and his family. I think the example for me is you don't have to retreat, if you get Parkinson's disease it's not retreat and go and it's over, it's no, go, go, go, go, figure out how we're going to fix this, what can we do, be vulnerable. But I think if I use him as a springboard for all kinds of things, not just dealing with something that is painful or difficult or adversity or blah, blah, blah, my work for my parenting, it's just a great lesson that you learn over and over again, don't just sit back and let something overwhelm you, move back. Also, the fact that he created the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is literally designed to go out of business, that he will have done his job if that business is dead, is I think really, really beautiful. And the funny thing happened on the way to Parkinson's Gala or event every year is a pretty great testament to what he's built. And he's still up there every year on the stage, getting a guitar, doing the same. Dude, thanks so much for your time today. Always, always a pleasure. Always a pleasure. Great to see you. Thank you for having me. It's amazing. Thanks to Ryan Reynolds for a great conversation about movies, about his career, and most importantly to both of us, our dads. If you're one of the few people who has not yet seen Deadpool and Wolverine, you can check it out in theaters now. My thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of these conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday Today, every weekend on NBC, where you can actually see these conversations with your eyes, in full technical. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on Sunday Sit Down. Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest, but let me play devil's advocate here. Let's see. So, no, that's a good thing. That's definitely not a problem. Reese's, you did it. You stumped this charming devil! [MUSIC PLAYING]
Willie gets together with Ryan Reynolds as his latest "Deadpool" movie becomes the highest grossing R-rated movie in history. Ryan also opens up about his late father’s experience with Parkinson's disease and the toll it took on his family.