Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers adopts an alter ego. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life. Ryan Reynolds stars in the role of Wilson/Deadpool, along with Morena Baccarin as his romantic interest. The film delivers on all fronts, and opening February 12, makes for the perfect Valentine’s Day date. In an exclusive interview Reynolds speaks to HOMBRE and reveals the inner workings of our new favorite take in the world of comic book hero franchises.

Reynolds was meant to play Deadpool. He has no bigger fan than Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, who as usual has a cameo in the film and also serves as an executive producer. “There’s never been a character like Deadpool, and Ryan Reynolds plays him as though he was born to play the role,” says Lee. “Just like Robert Downey, Jr. was born to be Iron Man, you just can’t picture anybody else besides Ryan as Deadpool.” Reynolds embraced the character’s myriad (and often twisted) facets. “In the comic book world, Deadpool is a man of our time with the ability to spout just the right thing, in terms of a pop culture reference, at the worst possible moment,” he quips. “That’s what makes him interesting to me and also makes him sort of limitless.”

Reynolds who functions as star and producer in DEADPOOL championed to have the film made for eleven years. He is one of Hollywood’s most diverse leading men, seamlessly transitioning through drama, action and comedy in his rich and ever evolving career. His role as Wade Wilson/ Deadpool brilliantly encapsulates his diverse skills, including his perfect comedic timing.

Recently, Reynolds was seen in “Mississippi Grind,” alongside Ben Mendelsohn. Also last year, he starred in the features “Woman in Gold,” “The Voices” and “Selfless. He has voiced two DreamWorks Animation films, as a snail in 2013’s “Turbo;” and as Goy in DWA’s “The Croods,” a role he’s scheduled to reprise. Additional film credits include the Universal action thriller “Safe House,” opposite Denzel Washington; the Universal comedy “The Change Up,” opposite Jason Bateman; the Warner Bros. adaptation of the popular DC Comic “Green Lantern”; and the mystery/thriller “Buried,” in which Reynolds is the only actor to appear on camera. In 2009, Reynolds and Sandra Bullock starred in Disney’s romantic number one comedy “The Proposal.” That same year, Reynolds was seen as Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” He starred opposite an all-star cast, including Hugh Jackman, and the film grossed $365 million worldwide. 

Along with an extensive list of film credits, Reynolds’ TV production company, DarkFire, recently sold its first two projects – the live action comedy “Guidance” and the animated comedy “And Then There Was Gordon,” to 20th Century Fox TV. Reynolds will executive produce the series alongside Allan Loeb, Jonathon Komack Martin, Tim Dowling and Steven Pearl.

On the altruistic front, Reynolds serves on the board of directors for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

HOMBRE: DEADPOOL has some hilarious moments, how much improvisation made it to the film?
Ryan Reynolds: They’re all over. It’s a nice group effort. It’s a collaboration. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernik have been really good friends of mine for six years. We developed the script together. We sort of a operate like a little writer’s circle and we just kind of hammer out ten different options. It was a lot of fun, a dream job.

H: How did DEADPOOL finally arrive in theaters, after taking so long to be made?
RR: In 2004 I was introduced to DEADPOOL for the very first time. I like that the protagonist is morally flexible. I thought it was good to have someone who doesn’t fight on the side of good or bad, he just does what he wants to do. That was kind of dangerous and disruptive to the comic book universe. Of course nobody had the balls to make it so the movie just sat on the shelf for years and years and it wasn’t until the fans saw some leaked footage that they overwhelmed the studio with hate mail and tweets and anything else they could do saying that they wanted a full movie and they wanted it now.
People have this false idea that I’ve been an ambassador for DEADPOOL for eleven years. Yes, I have, but I got nothing done. It was all the fans that got it all done. I just went along with it. I have a producer credit but that producer credit was only to protect it. I was there when they didn’t protect Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and that hurt, I didn’t have a say then.

H: Tell us about the stunts in the film.
RR: I had a hell of a stuntman, two actually, Adrian (Hein) and Alex (Kyshkovych), Alex comes from Cirque du Soleil so he would do a lot of the crazy acrobatic stuff. The problem is I thought I’d get away with doing less but their heads look different in the suit than mine so I had to do tons more than what I expected. Also so much of the fight scenes are character work. Deadpool fights funny and one thing we wanted was the stark contrast between the violence and the comedy. We wanted to have these things dovetail in a way we’ve never seen before. You have these scenes that are just vicious and then they’re undercut by comedy. We had a unique opportunity to put something on the screen in the superhero genre that hadn’t been done before.

H: Why was it so important for you to do this film?
RR: We’re standing in an apocalypse of superhero movies and Deadpool runs counter to that. There’s a commentary there that’s interesting and I think fans love Deadpool because that’s them up there. When they watch this comic book movie that’s Deadpool saying and doing all the things they would say and do if they were actually in that comic book movie. It’s why it’s become a cultural phenomenon, because they’re getting the idea that that’s them up there.

H: What was it like wearing the suit?
RR: Picture strapping your entire body into a tight red body condom (laughter). The first time you’re in it it’s a little unnerving, then you get used to it. But anytime it was a new suit that was tough.

H: Did you keep it?
RR: Of course! It was the last day of shooting and I just packed that thing up. If someone wants to get it they gonna have to come take it from me. We had 9 suits and 7 were destroyed by stunts, so there were two that were usable and I kept one.

H: The marketing for the film has been extensive, why did you decide to become so personally involved?
RR: The marketing has been an extension of the shooting process of the film. We never stopped. We’ve been doing viral videos. We’ve been doing everything we can so I’ve used the suit that’s home as much as I’ve used any suit in the movie. I have as much fun with the marketing stuff as I did with the film.

H: How complicated was the make-up process?
RR: You have to go all in. You can’t do a Deadpool movie and fake it. We ended leaving on the mask for 20 percent more than we script it and that was a huge time saver for us because getting the scar makeup takes 4 hours for just the face and the arms. For the whole workshop fight sequence I’m naked so I’m in the scar makeup head to toe and that took eight or nine hours and then you have fifteen hour shoot days so those days are a write off. By the end is like I’ve taken ten hits of acid and a pint of whisky and tried to talk.

H: How was the chemistry between you and Morena?
RR: We just now have chemistry (laugher). I can only work with heavily pregnant women (referencing a very pregnant Morena Baccarin), it’s a thing for me, I’m working on it with my therapist (laughter).
We were very lucky, right from the get-go we had this thing. It takes a very unique person to do this role that Morena is doing. You have to go toe-to-toe with a guy who is a mentally unhinged mercenary. And she does it beautifully. I knew the first time she did that scene with me in the bar that this is so right. It’s a tough thing to do, you’re walking a tightrope. You have these two liars telling these things and it’s just fantastic. She has to be charming and believable in that scene even though she’s lying, but these two really want to be with each other. That scene for me is when you really feel you’re in a Deadpool movie

H: Will Deadpool do cameos in other superhero films?
RR: I would sooner be in a Sesame Street episode of DEADPOOL (laughter). A thirty second cameo, I would love that, but there is all this licensing, it’s a nightmare. The studio is already trying to figure out how can we put Deadpool in the X-Men and you have to protect it. X-Men writers are different than Deadpool writers and you can’t let a bunch of people mess with it. It’s always a tricky thing. It’s possible and there’s room for it and we have some good ideas, but it would have to be in a carefully constructed way.

H: How much fun were all those digs at Wolverine in the film?
RR: Are you kidding ?! That’s what got me up in the morning! (laughter). Honestly, the best part is that Hugh Jackman is the world’s greatest sport and he’s the nicest guy. He makes ice cream look like murder. I adore Hugh. and everything was vetted through him. I’d call him and say, Hugh I’m thinking of maybe stapling your face as a mask to my face, how would that make you feel? It was all in the up-and-up and just a blast to break that fourth wall like that.

H: Amidst all the action, the film has a very romantic slant.
RR: We did some viral marketing that can mirror Nicholas Sparks stuff. What tethers Deadpool to planet earth is her, it’s Vanessa. That’s what unhinges him in the worse way possible, when she’s taken away. She is sort of the heartbeat of the film.

H: Who were your heroes – and villains – growing up?
RR: Chevy Chase as a kid, that’s one of the biggest. Villains? I don’t know, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney? No, I like him, I’m friends with his son. Now I’m in trouble (laughter).

H: Do you think the success of this film will make audiences forget another superhero film from your past?
RR: No, because I remind you of that movie in this movie, so probably not. You should see the stuff we cut out! At the end of the day I poke a little fun at it. You have 170 people working on a movie trying to make it as good as they possible can and sometimes they don’t work. Green Lantern didn’t work because it didn’t have a script. Studios will green light these movies when they have a poster, an actor, and a release date and they’re starting to learn that doesn’t always work and that was no exception. The great thing about DEADPOOL, whether it erases that memory or not, we’ve had this fantastic script for six years and it was so hard to get it made and it’s frustrating because here’s a superhero movie that ostensibly works in the box office, it pleases all the die hard fans and people who are uninitiated alike, and it had a script, and for six years that never happened.

H: Are there plans for DEADPOOL 2?
RR: That’s such a tricky one. If we’re lucky enough to get there will talk about it. I have faith.

H: What will you for Valentine’s Day?
RR: I’m going to have to scramble and figure it out. We still have a few days.

H: Finally, what’s next for you?
RR: I’m reading ‘Delivering babies for dummies’ (laughter). DEADPOOL is an eleven year dream for me so it creates an existential vortex at the end of it. Now I’m going around like, what’s next, what now? Guess I have to go raise my daughter (laughter).

Following our exclusive interview, a candid shot of Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin with HOMBRE Magazine’s Francisco Romeo