Ryan Reynolds revealed that he “stopped getting paid” for “Deadpool” so that the other writers could be present on the set.
“When I finally got around to it [the movie]“It had been almost 10 years at that point,” Reynolds told the New York Times. “No part of me thought that when ‘Deadpool’ was finally greenlit it would be a hit. I even stopped getting paid to make the movie just to get it back on screen — they wouldn’t let my co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick be on the set, so I took what little salary I had left and paid them to be on the set with me so we could form a de facto writers’ room.”
Reese and Wernick revealed Reynolds’s involvement in 2016 during an episode of AMC’s “Geeking Out.” The writers said Reynolds covered the expenses to keep them involved in the creative process.
“We were on the project for six years. It was a creative team that was us, Ryan and director Tim Miller,” Wernick told hosts Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg. “Interestingly, Fox didn’t pay us to be on set. Ryan Reynolds paid out of his own pocket.”
In his interview with the New York Times, Reynolds also noted that having limited time and money for the project proved beneficial.
“It was a lesson in a number of ways,” Reynolds said. “I think one of the great enemies of creativity is too much time and money, and that movie had neither time nor money. It really encouraged a focus on character over spectacle, which is a little bit harder to execute on a comic book movie. I was so immersed in every micro detail, and I hadn’t felt that way in a long, long time. I remember wanting to feel that more, not just on ‘Deadpool,’ but on anything.”
What began as a labor of love for Reynolds has spawned two sequels. The third film, “Deadpool and Wolverine,” is set to hit theaters July 26.
The film will follow Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, who is recovering from his injuries when he encounters Reynolds' fast-talking Deadpool.
