Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman Open Up About Their ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Reunion

Like any good best friends, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman know exactly what to say to make each other laugh. It’s a few days before their epic team-up Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters, and the two stars are reflecting on the pros and cons of wearing skintight super suits.    

“I absolutely loved it,” Jackman says of his yellow Wolverine outfit, “except when I had to go to the bathroom. It was like a labyrinth!”

“It took like five minutes just to find the thing!” Reynolds agrees, as Jackman begins to giggle. “Like, what is happening in there? Is it a hedge maze? Is that the elevator from Prince’s house? How did that get in there! What is this, my dad’s ashes?” At this point, Jackman is laughing so hard that he’s almost fallen out of his chair, wiping tears from his eyes. As Jackman lets out a loud snort, Reynolds turns to the camera crew with mock solemnity. “I’m so sorry you had to see him do that,” he says seriously, as Jackman dissolves into laughter again.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Reynolds and Jackman know exactly how to push each other’s buttons. The two actors have been friends for well over a decade, ever since they starred together in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now, they’re suiting up together again, this time for Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine. The film follows Reynolds’ Deadpool as he races to save his universe, recruiting a down-on-his-luck Wolverine (Jackman) as an unlikely ally.

It's a collaboration that almost didn’t happen: Initially, Jackman planned to hang up his adamantium claws for good after 2017’s Logan, intending that film to be his final appearance as Wolverine. But after seeing Reynolds’ foul-mouthed performance in the first two Deadpool movies, he couldn’t help but wonder what a proper Deadpool & Wolverine team-up might look like. So, when Reynolds was brainstorming ideas for a potential third Deadpool movie, Jackman called up his friend to ask if Wolverine could join the chaos.

“So much of it is dumb luck in terms of timing, right?” Reynolds says, turning to Jackman. “You obviously were ready to do this again. It’s been six years since I’d played the character. All of it just felt like the right time in the cultural landscape to have these two guys come back together and do a movie that is just an unabashed fastball of joy.”

“We’ve been friends for 15 years, but our friendship just gets better and better, deeper and deeper,” Jackman adds. “We hang out a lot. So, being on set every day with one of my best buddies and [director Shawn Levy], we’re like the three amigos. That is not lost on any of us.”

Both actors wanted the film to stay true to the characters while pushing both heroes into unexpected territory. Reynolds particularly praises Jackman for helping to shape Wolverine’s journey in the film. After all, he notes, it’s a role Jackman has played for more than 20 years, dating all the way back to 2000’s X-Men.

“You really unlocked the main thrust of how to put this character back on the screen,” he tells Jackman. “Particularly in a world where Deadpool can be so chaotic and different, yet these characters have so much more in common than people realize. They both deal with shame in completely weird, different ways.”

As an example, Reynolds points to one of his favorite scenes in the film — no spoilers! — in which the traditionally silent Wolverine delivers an emotional monologue while sitting in a van with Deadpool.

“I’m usually the Chatty Cathy, but [I loved] getting to watch Hugh feel every syllable of that speech, just watching it executed at that level,” Reynolds says with awe. “As someone who wrote that speech, I was having an out-of-body experience. I was like, I’ve never felt so good about anything in my life while still trying to stay in character. Watching him work like that was one of the highlights of my entire career, probably.”

“Every day on set, I laughed until I cried,” Jackman says. “There’s so many times he would do things that I didn’t expect. What burns with me in Ryan’s performance is the humanity. Obviously, he’s funny. He’s subversive. The character deflects all the time. But when he opens up, when you see what’s happening in those eyes or in his voice, it’s everything. He’s a brilliant, brilliant actor, and he cares so much about the character that he wants to show all sides perfectly.”

Spoken like true best friends.

Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters July 26.