Ryan Reynolds soapboxes in defense of comedy after Actors on Actors criticism

He may play a superhero on film, but Ryan Reynolds is positioning himself as the hero capital-C Comedy needs in real life as well. When Variety announced their annual Actors on Actors interview pairings yesterday, some commentators were disappointed to see the Deadpool & Wolverine star sitting across from two-time Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield. "Andrew Garfield talking about playing a husband and father who’s [sic] wife decides to forgo cancer treatment (in We Live In Time) and Ryan Reynolds talking about playing Deadpool," one Twitter (X) user wrote in a since-deleted post.

Reynolds is seemingly not pleased with that comparison—not because his character, Wade Wilson, actually did have cancer, and not because he leads the highest-grossing live-action film of the year, a genuinely impressive feat regardless of awards attention. No, it’s because there’s no reason for performances in cameo comedies like Deadpool & Wolverine not to be in conversation with elegiac dramas like We Live In Time, apparently. He doesn't intend that as any shade to Garfield, who he called a "genius" in a lengthy response to the aforementioned tweet. And yes, he knows he's Deadpool, "BUT I will take a second and speak up in defense of comedy," he continued.

Here's what he had to say:

Dramatic work is difficult. And we’re also meant to SEE it’s difficult which is one of the reasons it feels visceral and effective. Comedy is also very difficult. But has an added dimension in that it’s meant to look and feel effortless. You intentionally hide the stitching and unstitching. I think both disciplines are beautiful. And both work beautifully together. Comedy and drama subsist on tension. Both thrive when subverting expectation. Both thrive backstopped by real emotion. 

Having seen the film, this writer would argue that Garfield’s performance in We Live In Time is so effective precisely because it doesn't feel difficult at all. The "stitches" in Deadpool & Wolverine are so visible, on the other hand, that The A.V. Club reviewer Jesse Hassenger devoted an entire paragraph to the broken canon in his writeup of the film. (His conclusion? Please direct your questions to Kevin Feige, because we don't get it either.)

But all of this is "deeply subjective" according to Reynolds' post, which he concluded in a pretty baffling dichotomy: "Your favourite comedy might be Anchorman. Mine might be Lars Von Trier’s, [sic] Melancholia." Maybe that's a joke. If it's actually true, it would be a wild takeaway. As goofy as that thought is, however, it's not as noteworthy as the underlying reason people were so upset about the lineup. While likely not a one-to-one thing, Reynolds' presence does highlight the absence of Sebastian Stan, who was reportedly shut out of the series because none of the other actors' teams wanted their clients to discuss his Trump biopic, The Apprentice. Defending comedy is noble, sure, but there's nothing funny about the threat of artists losing the freedom to criticize authority.