How Hollywood failure set Ryan Reynolds on the path to Wrexham glory
Ryan Reynolds has enjoyed an incredibly successful career in acting and business, but it hasn't always been smooth sailing - as he found out with Green Lantern
Ryan Reynolds, the Deadpool star and business mogul, is now considered a success story, but it wasn't always so.
With an estimated net worth of around £290million, he's known for his smart investments, such as purchasing Wrexham and making a fortune from his stake in telecoms company Mint Mobile. However, his journey with the Red Dragons, alongside fellow actor Rob McElhenney, might not have happened if not for one of the biggest film failures of his career - the 2011 Green Lantern movie.
The Hollywood heavyweight played Hal Jordan in the film, which was released when he was 34. Despite a budget of £182m, the DC superhero film only grossed £166m and was panned by critics, marking it as one of the biggest film disasters in recent memory.
Reynolds has since accepted the film's failure with grace and humour. Speaking at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in London last year, he reflected on how quickly he realised the film's fate at its premiere.
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According to The Independent, he confessed to guest host Rob Delaney: "Truly, shooting the movie was a lot of fun. But, you know, sitting in that premiere, watching that...oh my God, it's tough.", reports the Mirror US. Describing his immediate reaction, Reynolds said: "The words were 'holy s***' and 'no, no! '
He added: "It was crazy. It was an odd feeling. It was not a feeling I wanted to repeat. So I really spent the following years just owning as much as I could, it was the only way to kind of process it."
The 48-year-old actor attributed the film's failure to several factors, including excessive spending on special effects and a lack of focus on developing the lead character. He said: "The thinking was never there to do that. It's just 'Let's just keep spending our way through this.' And that didn't work."
Despite the traumatic experience, the legacy of Green Lantern wasn't all bad. After all, it was during the filming of the movie that Reynolds met his co-star and now-wife Blake Lively.
The couple have four children together: James, Inez, Betty and Olin, and live in a mansion in the Pound Ridge neighbourhood of New York. The success of his recent work will also have helped to ease the pain, with last year's Deadpool and Wolverine generating more than £1bn globally.
Reynolds recently opened up on another valuable lesson he learned from the saga, namely not to be afraid of failure. Without that piece of wisdom, he says he may not have taken the plunge on buying Wrexham.
At an event hosted by former US President Barack Obama in Chicago last month, Reynolds revealed: "I don't think I could have done this earlier than when I was 40. I embraced sucking and failing much more in my late 30s and 40s, and by doing that, it freed me up in the greatest possible way."
Reynolds admitted that anxiety had previously held him back, but he overcame his fears to find success with Wrexham, saying: "Everyone has anxiety and that has always kept me within a safety lane and not really stepping out.
"But then it's like, just f***ing get over yourself. What Wrexham has really grown inside of me is the value and importance of emotional investment."
The Red Dragons have flourished under Reynolds' ownership, earning back-to-back promotions, and are now planning a major stadium expansion. Wrexham fans might therefore watch Green Lantern with a smile on their faces next time.