Reynolds on Green Lantern & more!

There's a little interview over at MTV with Ryan Reynolds on his roles as Green Lantern and Deadpool. Best bits below:

MTV: When you take a look at this year, does it feel like, in the scheme of things, it's a landmark year, personally or professionally?

Reynolds: It's been probably the most unbelievable year of my life. Starting with setting some goals that I didn't think would be possible several years before, running a marathon, getting married -- the year has been incredible, all across the board. The fact that "Green Lantern" is something that's about to get going full-steam pretty soon, and then there is "Deadpool" on the horizon as well. If you asked me if this would be happening three years ago, I would have kick-f---ed you back to where you were from.

MTV: All these things we're talking about are things you set in motion. You pursued them, you kind of went after them. Does that make it a little bit more gratifying?

Reynolds: It's incredibly validating and gratifying when you can see that you can manifest something that you desperately want or a goal that you have. This is a difficult industry to get anything made, let alone a passion project, so when you see people understand what your vision is and come aligned with that common goal, it's pretty cool. I'm including all the creative types that are actually involved with "Deadpool" and "Green Lantern," because those guys want to make an authentic movie, and that's something a few years ago studios disregarded.

MTV: You have done everything from a publicity tour with Betty White to trying on the Green Lantern costumes. So, in looking back at the year, is there a moment that sums it up, that encapsulates what 2009 was about?

Reynolds: I think, seeing the prototypes for the Green Lantern costumes was a huge moment. It was a moment when I was like, "This is happening, and it's happening in the right way." That's a pretty cool, definitive moment for me.

MTV: Were you happy with the incarnation of Wade Wilson and Deadpool in "Wolverine"? Do you think you captured what you wanted to in the first look at Wade?

Reynolds: Yeah, I think the initial moment of the sequences that involve Wade, I think it did. It's always difficult to fully embrace something that isn't perfect, in terms of staying true to the source material. So it was a little bit frustrating. I really wanted to play Wade, and I really wanted to play Deadpool, and it would kill me to see someone else play them. I had a kind of ham-fisted attitude that it had to be perfect, but it doesn't. The movie's called "Wolverine," it's not called "Deadpool" or "Wade." I thought it was a nice little wink and tip of the hat to things to come. Finding the tone of that character alone is such a difficult prospect. I've been in so many meetings lately about "Deadpool" and meeting all these writers. Everyone is always looking for that one line, "What is that character?" and for me it's kind of like, "There's a guy, and he's in a highly militarized comedic fame spiral." That's not an easy thing to write -- an entire screenplay, let alone a franchise. I had a blast playing Wade. Every line I had in that was stuff I thought he would say. It wasn't something that a writer said to me. It was fun to really create that character, including everything he spits out of his awful mouth.

MTV: Does your love of "Green Lantern" and Hal Jordan go back far?

Reynolds: I've known about "Green Lantern" my whole life, but I've never really followed it before. I fell in love with the character when I met with [director] Martin Campbell. When I sat down with him, I really got what it is that this guy is all about. When you have a guy like Martin Campbell, part of his charm is that he has ba--s of titanium, and the other part is that he's slightly crazy, and you have to be to take on something with the scope of "Green Lantern." He's less of the director and more of a general. He just really knows strategies, he knows the intricacies, and his attention to detail! It's infectious. I sat down with him, and I could not even believe what he was saying. When I went to the meeting, I was entirely cynical. I thought, "What the hell, I'll see what they have to say," and I left the room with a completely different perspective.

And another post from MTV added the following:

After offering up some thoughts about Green Lantern's costume, Reynolds told MTV News that the scenes in which Hal Jordan isn't in costume will likely be the most memorable from the film — much like Robert Downey Jr.'s time spent out of Tony Stark's armor in "Iron Man."

"I think you walk away from this first film, and the moments that you remember and the moments that mean so much to you, not unlike 'Iron Man,' are the moments where the guy's not in the suit," said Reynolds.

However, Reynolds acknowledged that developing those moments amid the cosmic action central to "Green Lantern" is a daunting task — after all, a test pilot who receives a super-powered ring from a dying alien is likely to demand a much different tone than a billionaire industrialist building his own battle armor.

"That to me is the tough thing to get right," he explained. "And that's something that they did get right [in 'Iron Man']. You see why this guy's in the suit, and that's what's interesting to me. Not that he is in the suit, but why."

With "Green Lantern" scheduled to begin shooting next year (possibly in New Orleans), Reynolds shied away from calling the film's plot an origin story, despite the need to introduce Hal Jordan to mainstream movie audiences.

"It is [an origin story] to a certain degree, but it's not a labored origin story, where the movie [truly] begins in the third act," he explained. "The movie starts when it starts. We find out Hal is the guy fairly early on, and the adventure begins."