Rick Moranis returns to acting after leaving Hollywood to be a single dad
Rick Moranis has returned to the small screen and we have Ryan Reynolds to thank for it.
The "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" star, who left Hollywood more than 20 years ago so he could focus on raising his two children as a single father, appears alongside Reynolds in a new commercial for Mint Mobile.
Reynolds introduces the legendary funnyman by calling him an actor "we've all gone too long without."
"So, what do you want me to do? You want me to say something about Mint?" Moranis asks the "Deadpool" star. In an aside to himself, he adds, "I've really got to get a phone."
When Moranis, 67, questions how he ended up in the commercial in the first place, Reynolds shyly gushes, "I'm just a huge fan. ... No, seriously, massive."
Moranis stepped away from Hollywood in the 1990s to raise his son Mitchell and daughter Rachel after his wife, makeup artist Ann Belsky, died of cancer in 1991 at age 35. Though his pals in the film industry tried wooing him to new projects, the lovably geeky comedian rejected most offers.
"I pulled out of making movies in about ’96 or ’97," he told USA Today in 2005. "I'm a single parent, and I just found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn’t miss it."
But Moranis' fans never stopped missing him. After Reynolds shared a clip of the new commercial on Twitter, many expressed their joy over seeing Moranis back in action.
"I grew up watching Rick Moranis on SCTV. The man is a *bleeping* legend and I will fight anyone who disagrees. And for bringing him in on this, you're pretty okay too," one wrote.
After another marveled at seeing the "Ghostbusters" star again, Reynolds revealed that he "wept" when the actor agreed to be in the ad with him.
Honestly, when he said yes, I wept.
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) September 9, 2020
The new commercial with Reynolds is just the first step in the "Spaceballs" star's long-anticipated return to entertainment.
One of Moranis' last movie roles was in 1997 when he reprised his unlucky inventor character Wayne Szalinski in the direct-to-video sequel "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves." Deadline reported earlier this year that Moranis will be reprising the Disney franchise alongside Josh Gad in a new movie tentatively titled "Shrunk."
Watch TODAY All Day! Get the best news, information and inspiration from TODAY, all day long.
