Ryan Reynolds geeks out, blown away by ‘Red Notice’ co-stars

CEBU, Philippines —  If spectacular set pieces, fast flying one-liners, and a globe-trotting adventure aren’t enough hooks for you, Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds is saying that you come for THE TRIO.

“It’s very hard to get three main stars of the movie – myself, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot – in a room together, let alone in a whole movie,” the actor said on what sets apart his latest film from other epic screen heists.

Fielding questions from Asia-Pacific media outlets from his New York residence in a virtual press conference, he added, “You leave it to Netflix to figure out some way to do it. They’re so innovative, they figured out how to master some wildly complex scheduling, and ‘Red Notice’ had some tricky scheduling issues. I think that’s what really distinguishes it. They used to do it in the old days in Hollywood. They don’t do it as much anymore. But getting three personalities in one feature film is a challenge. And they did it.”

In “Red Notice”, Reynolds is the world’s greatest art thief Nolan Booth, who delivers some of the film’s bests wisecracks. Released globally this November 12th on Netflix, it chronicles the escapades of tenacious FBI agent John Hartley (Johnson) as he chases two world-famous art thieves – con man Nolan and the cool and classy “Bishop” (Gadot) – around the world. No one is as they seem, and no alliance is built to last.

For this adventure-comedy, a Red Notice is the highest level of arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) reserved for the world’s most wanted criminals.

The prospect of working with his pals was enough for Reynolds to come on board. He’s been friends with Johnson for over 20 years, and has known Gadot for almost 10 (his co-star in “The Criminal).

Their November 3 world premiere was one of the biggest he’s attended in his career – “covering about four square blocks of downtown Los Angeles.” As always, getting together with his long time chums had an “easy breezy charm” for him.

Second to the cast, Reynolds loved the fact that he only had to show up for this project. “A lot of the movies I do, I produce and I’m writing on, and there’s a lot more responsibility. This one, I got to just jump in the sandbox with friends and have fun. It’s not every day that you get to do that. Sometimes you forget this job is fun, and I never forgot it for a second on the set of ‘Red Notice.’”

Putting larger than life personalities together can get tricky at times and Reynolds said one never knows how it’s going to go. That they knew each other from way back did not make the possibility of A-listers butting heads a concern. Still, that did not mean he wasn’t immune to their magnetic presence.

“People don’t realize that just because I work in this industry for almost 30 years now, I still get excited and geeked out. When Dwayne or Gal walks in the room, my first instinct isn’t, ‘Oh, there’s my buddy Dwayne or Gal.’ My first instinct is, ‘Oh my god, that’s Gal Gadot. That’s Dwayne The Rock Johnson just walking in a room right now.’ So I get sort of starstruck just like everybody else.”

In fact, he was blown away by Gadot’s athleticism and Johnson’s sheer strength.

“Gal’s so gifted at the fight sequences – she did a ton of that herself. And then Dwayne, he just picked me up and threw me across the room like I was a toothpick. So those were pretty amazing moments to witness firsthand.”

One notable sequence for him was meeting Gadot’s The Bishop for the first time in a prison chapel.

It was the most interesting for him to shoot not only because it was the first time all three were in one room and sizing each other up, but also because he got to see the actress in a different light

“Gal was so gifted at being so charming, funny and easy in the scene whereas when we watched her as Wonder Woman or some of her other roles, she’s usually playing authoritative characters,” he said. “So to see her kind of be like a Cary Grant in this moment was really fun for me.”

Then there’s the onscreen bromance between his character and that of Johnson’s, which he said was a natural by-product of two guys with similar work ethics and outlooks in life.

“Weirdly, Dwayne and I have a lot more in common than you’d imagine. Certainly not body mass,” he quipped. “We each have three daughters. We have extracurricular businesses that we care deeply about. We both feel very much we’re in service of an audience and that they’re the boss.”

This easy camaraderie was what Netflix wanted reflected on screen.

“That’s what they were paying for. And that’s what we were excited to give them. So if you come to dinner with Dwayne and I, you will see we quite literally talk to each other the way we talk to each other in ‘Red Notice.’ And it’s pretty funny to be around. Putting that up on screen was a real pleasure,” said Reynolds, who relished playing a rascal, one that the others couldn’t ever trust and relax around.

And while The “Deadpool” star has been widely known for his unmistakable brand of humor, Reynolds said it is a persona that’s vastly different when he’s off-cam.

“As a kid and as an adult, I’ve always struggled with anxiety. The sort of fast-talking, hyper verbal, ironic kind of personality that I’ve manufactured for film really started as a defense mechanism. When I was younger, to get through situations where I felt ill-equipped to deal with, I would sort of have that part of my personality take over and kind of run the show for me,” he explained.

“And that’s something I’m grateful for. But it’s also something I think at a young age I wish I didn’t need. The real me is much, much different than that. I’m a lot more sensitive. I probably listen a lot better than the characters I play.”

For Reynolds – whom “Red Notice” director and writer Rawson Marshall Thurber (“Central Intelligence”, “Skyscraper”) described in the film’s press notes as exceptional at comedy – humor and wit in movies come from personal pathos.

“I think you can’t really have any understanding of the dynamics of comedy unless you sort of understand its opposite. I do see comedy as an underappreciated medium. Comedy is a very challenging art form, and I have a great deal of reverence and respect for it,” he said.

“I’m always trying to grow and learn more. I really do owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who’ve come before me. I grew up watching the Steve Martins, Eddie Murphys, John Candys, Peter Sellers, and the Gene Wilders of the world. Those are people that have huge influences on me and shaped me in a lot of different ways.”