Ryan Reynolds‘ Deadpool was a huge success when it was released in 2016.
It grossed more than $775 million at the box office and sparked a franchise that is now three movies strong. However, the 47-year-old actor shared some surprising news about his pay for the blockbuster in a new interview.
Keep reading to find out more…
Although Deadpool was a solid-gold hit, the movie only had a sparse $58 million budget.
Speaking to The New York Times, Ryan explained that the budget did not go toward his salary. In fact, he sacrificed his salary to ensure that the movie was as good as it could be.
“No part of me was thinking when Deadpool was finally greenlit that this would be a success,” he explained, noting it was a passion project he spent years pushing for.
Ryan continued, saying, “I even let go of getting paid to do the movie just to put it back on the screen: They wouldn’t allow my co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick on set, so I took the little salary I had left and paid them to be on set with me so we could form a de facto writers room.”
Despite giving up his pay, he noted that the tight budget helped push the creative team.
“I think one of the great enemies of creativity is too much time and money, and that movie had neither time nor money. It really fostered focusing on character over spectacle, which is a little harder to execute in a comic-book movie. I was just so invested in every micro-detail of it and I hadn’t felt like that in a long, long time. I remembered wanting to feel that more — not just on Deadpool, but on anything,” he said.
Ryan suited up again for Deadpool & Wolverine, a third movie in the franchise that sees him teaming up with Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine.
Deadpool & Wolverine arrives in theaters on July 26. Check out the trailer!
The new movie is shaping up to be a huge box office success, too.
