Blake Lively’s Gift Helped Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman Write ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’
When Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman were making their upcoming film, Deadpool & Wolverine, a ping-pong table sent to them by Reynolds’ wife, Blake Lively, helped them come up with comedic ideas.
“Boy, did we play some ping-pong,” Reynolds, 47, said during a Monday, June 24, interview with Vanity Fair.
“It gets you out of your head, it wakes you up,” Jackman, 55, added.
Reynolds shared a photo via Instagram on Monday of himself and Jackman playing ping-pong while dressed as their respective characters, Deadpool and Wolverine.
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“Blake [is] the real reason these ping-pong photos came about. She and I have a bunch of these prints of actors playing it on their sets,” Reynolds told the outlet. “We’ve got [Paul] Newman and [Robert] Redford in Durango, Mexico, during the shooting of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We’ve got Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, I think in the ’30s. We have Olivia de Havilland playing ping-pong, Ronald Regan and Jane Wyman playing. Joan Crawford. So, Blake sent the ping-pong table to Pinewood Studios.”
Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy shared that the ping-ping photos are "personal favorites" for him, Reynolds and Jackman.
“For the three of us, those photos are treasures. They captured the spirit of this shoot,” he said. “It was very hard work, but it was fun every day because we were doing it with buddies.”
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The playful act of ping-pong — as well as the trio’s preexisting friendship — helped them craft the punchy comedy they knew the film needed.
“This friendship between the three of us also made the movie better. You’re not embarrassed to try weird, dumb s–t,” Levy, 55, said. “And some of it is going to fail. Some of it doesn’t work. But if you’re comfortable failing in front of your buddies, you’re also going to be comfortable trying stuff that will be inspired.”
Jackman thought he was done playing Wolverine after 2017’s Logan until he realized he wanted to make a Deadpool movie, and agreed that the film was a blast to make.
“I instinctively knew that Deadpool was going to allow us to get to a different side of the [Wolverine] character than I’ve ever played before, in every way, from emotion, humor, dialogue, and action. Everything felt new and fresh to me,” he said. “And I’d be sharing it with Ryan and Shawn, who are two of my best friends. The three of us together are like the Three Amigos. There was not a day where I wasn’t in tears laughing. I felt so rejuvenated playing the part. I mean, I’m 25 years in, man, and it feels better than ever.”
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While Reynolds is grateful to Lively, 36, for the role she played in creating a fun environment on set, he couldn’t resist making a joke about the couple’s dynamic.
“Every family has a Deadpool in it somewhere. And every family should have another member who is not afraid to punch that person in the face,” Jackman said, referring to Wolverine’s frustration with Deadpool in the film.
“You can say her name. It’s Blake,” Reynolds quipped.
Reynolds and Lively tied the knot in 2012 and share four children: daughters James, 9, Inez, 7, and Betty, 4, and a fourth child, whose name has not been publicly announced, born in February 2023.
Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on Friday, July 26.
