Ryan Reynolds has worked with some great stars over the years, but there are few that he will speak of with high praise as Denzel Washington. The duo appeared together in the action thriller Safe House. While the film isn’t one of the biggest hits of either actor’s career, the experience is well remembered by both of them, though for apparently very different reasons.
Reynolds has spoken about how in awe he was working alongside Washington, but Washington himself jokes that he just thought Reynolds was a terrible actor. A clip of Denzel Washington appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show back in 2012 recently went viral, and it shows Denzel dropping a zinger so good that guest Tom Hardy nearly gave a Looney Tunes-worthy spit take. Check it out.
Maybe Denzel was taking it out on Ryan Reynolds in response to the fact that he ended up with a pair of black eyes making Safe House. Washington didn’t seem to hold a grudge at the time, but I guess if you give a guy a black eye, you need to be ready for some good-natured ribbing.
Still, it’s a great line that got everybody laughing. Tom Hardy was not prepared for that kind of response and neither was Keira Knightley for that matter. Both stars need to put their drinks to the side after that one.
Even recently, Reynolds has talked about how much he learned working with Denzel Washington. In addition to being in awe of him as an actor, Reynolds says Washington gave him great advice that he still considers to this day about being a producer.
Considering how much bigger a star Ryan Reynolds is today compared to where he was in 2012 when Washington gave this interview, it’s possible the latter really had no idea what sort of influence he would have on the young actor. This was all before Deadpool became an active phenomenon, which transformed Ryan Reynolds from an actor into a real movie star.
Honestly, we need to get these two together again. It’s been more than a decade since Safe House came out, and while talking about now has me wanting to use my Peacock subscription to check it out, what we really need is a new movie co-starring Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington. With Reynolds now being a huge name, the movie would be almost guaranteed to be a box office smash.
Of course, with Denzel Washington recently revealing that he’ll be appearing in Black Panther 3, there is always the chance, though likely a remote one, that Washington and Reynolds could cross paths in the MCU. Hopefully, if the day ever comes, Reynolds will be able to act getting lost in his co-stars’ performance.
