Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Ryan Reynolds on "Deadpool" Success and His Late Father's Parkinson's Diagnosis

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

Willie gets together with Ryan Reynolds as his latest "Deadpool" movie becomes the highest grossing R-rated movie in history. Ryan also opens up about his late father’s experience with Parkinson's disease and the toll it took on his family Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got a great one dialed up for you this week. With the man of the moment in Hollywood, he is Ryan Reynolds. His film, Deadpool and Wolverine, recently became this single highest-grossing R-rated film in the history of Hollywood. No R-rated movie ever made has made more money than did Deadpool and Wolverine, which co-stars his real-life.

Hugh Jackman. If you don't know the story about Deadpool, Ryan, of course, has had a great career before Deadpool, lots of romantic comedies and other films. But he really wanted to make this movie about a comic book character that he knew called Deadpool, that had kind of a cult following. Couldn't get a studio to get behind it

and ultimately had some, well, let's say, test footage, animated test footage made a couple of minutes of what the movie might look like. Mysteriously, as you'll hear us discuss in a second, That footage found its way onto the internet, and fans went crazy demanding a standalone Deadpool movie. They got it. The first one in 2016 became a hit, two more since, and now this record-smashing edition this summer in Deadpool and Wolverine. You know, Ryan, I'm not going to get big wind up on who he is.

A great guy. A guy I've known for just over a decade, and we bonded because both of our fathers have Parkinson's disease. We're both on the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and he's given so much of his time. and his fame and his platform to helping the cause to trying to find a cure along with the great Michael J. Fox for Parkinson's disease. So we talk a bit about a new campaign he's working on to raise some awareness about Parkinson's. We talk about our dads. We talk about our mutual friend Michael J. Fox and a lot about movies and a lot about Deadpool. And by the way, the competition this summer with his wife, Blake lively and her movie at the box office, it ends with us. So sit back, relax.

Please enjoy Ryan Reynolds right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Thanks for doing this, man. Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Nice to see you as well. I feel like I'm catching you as you've just come back to the beach off this tidal wave of Deadpool and Wolverine, which even I think you would admit has exceeded all of your expectations with how popular it is and how part of the culture it's become. What does it feel like to kind of be on the other side of it, given everything you put into it?

I think, well, you know, it feels good. You know, those things are always a little anticlimactic. I think because there's the sort of outcome, which everybody's mostly invested in, it doesn't totally match with the inner experience, which is that I miss making the movie. And I miss being, I just miss working on it because it never ends.

When you shoot one of those movies, you never stop writing, you never stop pushing, you never stop trying to improve, and you keep doing that because they say, you know, there's an old expression, you don't finish a movie, you abandon it. In our case, you know, myself and Sean Levy, we didn't necessarily finish the movie.

It was pried out of our hammerlock death grip in an edit room because it was time. And, yeah, even now, I've seen it at a couple premieres where I still have things I wish I could just, you know. Is it always that way, though, when you make a movie? No, no, it isn't, it is. Because I can make a movie where I just show up and act. Right.

And I leave and I, you know, check my coat at the door, and that's it, you know. And then there's other. movies, you know, like this, where it's just, it's a reason it's been six years, I think, since the last one. It's just, it's a full court press, and it is relentless, and it is a game of inches in detail. And I love that, but it's so immersive. It's just hard to be a dad, a husband, and somebody who's producing and writing and performing in a movie. It's a, yeah, it's a little intense. The other two Deadpool movies were huge. I mean, they were big movies, but this feels like

something even bigger than that. Does it feel that way from where you're sitting in the terms of the resonance and the way it's connecting with people? Yeah, I think to have a movie that you know, I've been here before when Deadpool 1 started as kind of a curiosity, you know, and it really benefited in that moment from an underdog story

to Deadpool 2, which certainly isn't an underdog story, but I thought it was fun to explore something a little bit more emotional. And then to this, which seems to have gone to this whole other kind of level in our zeitgeist that I was not expecting. I don't ever think about this when they start to prognosticate

on what it might do or what tracking and all that kind of stuff. I would say like the greatest cinematic villain ever written is expectation

and her twin brother tracking. So, you know, it's, it's, I sort of keep that stuff and I'm also, you know, at this point,

where we are with the movie and everything that's happened around it and it becoming the biggest you know, R-rated film ever. I am at an age where I can, I actually know what to do with that. Like, I'm actually

at an age where I can, I feel, I feel like I can, I can process that. I feel like I can enjoy that. Where I don't know that I could have when I was younger at all. That's interesting. What does that mean exactly? What is something about emotionally where you are right now? Yeah, I think so. I'm in, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm starting to kind of see, you know, that, that, that, that, that, it's very apparent that life is fleeting and fast and too fast for the most part. And, you know, I've got some mileage under me. I have a family. And by having a family, I feel like I'm sort of playing with the house's money sometimes. So it allows me some, these fleeting glimpses of objectivity around what's happening. And I see that this movie struck a chord with people and, and I see that the

intention with which we entered into this storytelling process, not to over-mythologize, it's, you know, this character or this movie, but, but went into it with like, like, Let's make this something that is just a fastball of joy for audiences. Let's make something that is like anti-cinicism, pure optimism, bathtubs of serotonin onto the brains, and something that is complete, meaning that it's not a commercial for another movie. There isn't some tag at the end that says, you know,

stay tuned because the story unfolds even more. You know, say, I wanted people to go and have a full and complete experience and walk out of a theater like, you know, walking on sunshine. I mean, genuinely just, and, you know, the friendship, that I have with Hugh and with Sean Levy, you know, and that sort of trio is something that I miss every day. Like I miss just being on set. We hang out and we talk every day. But it was fun last week walking around. I walked around New York City with Hugh, and it was wild to walk around. It felt like we maybe saved a baby from a burning building or something. It was like, it was just a movie.

So it's like, let's not get crazy here. But it was pretty wild. People really, really found a lot of love and joy. and happiness in the movie. And that's the thing I'm most proud of it. It is joy. And as I mentioned, I saw it yesterday morning at 11.45 a.m. On IMAX.

What a time to see you. It was hot. Yeah. I was like, are you guys open? 11.45 a. So it was me and maybe a couple other guys scattered throughout the theater. And it was pure joy.

From the minute, I don't want to give anything away because a lot of people are going to go see it. From that opening scene, yeah, it just starts with that. I'm never even going to say what happens because people need to go see it. People know.

But, you know, you also like, You also got to see it where you got to hear everything. I've never seen it where you get to hear all the... Oh, I've certainly sat in the editing room for 600 years working on the movie, so I know everything that's in it. But being in theater experiences with folks attending, you don't hear half the stuff because they're laughing over the joke before, and you miss it.

It's kind of cool to see it. No, it was incredible. I got it all. So does it mean a lot to you that this will be the highest-grossing R-rated movie in the history of films? Is that something you couldn't have expected? it again, but is that something, a little feather in the cap? Yeah, I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to place, over-emphasize the importance of that, because I don't think it's, like, actually important.

But I do think it is an important testament to theaters and that experience of, like, collective effervescence, which is this idea that you're in a movie theater. You're sitting there next to other people, whether they're, you know, we live in a world, there everything's divided. I'm this, you're that, you know, them versus us. And sports and movies, the two things that they have in common that I think are really beautiful and powerful is that they bring people together in smart, fun, and unexpected ways. And they allow people to have an experience together that celebrates togetherness like nothing else.

And I love that when you go see a sporting event or go see a movie, it doesn't matter what color shirt you're wearing, what you do, what you think, what your belief system is, any of that stuff, we're all watching the same thing, we're all enjoying the same thing, we're all having the same experience. And that's collective effervescence to me. That's that high you get from that experience. And I love that the movie reinforces that thesis, which we've basically known for 100 years since the Lumiere brothers, but we still, I think, need to be reminded of it now and again.

It's so funny you say that. I told you, I just got back from the Olympics. And I had the thought there of like, oh, right, this is who we are. Yeah. This bond we're feeling in this arena right now. And then I went to your movie, and I think the success of it

is a commentary about what people want, which is they want to feel joy, they want to be together. So in these times when we're just like, like you say, right down the middle, and we're being told we're divided and maybe we're not actually as divided as we think we are.

So movies, sports, and music, right? Those are the places we can go together. It's working with people. I love working with people who have different ideals and different kind of ideas of life. I just think it's interesting to meet it with curiosity

as opposed to you know, finding some sort of binary kind of way of expressing it or finding some sort of placing a value judgment on it, you know, I don't know. As I get older, I think I'm better at observation as opposed to evaluation. Yeah. Like constantly evaluating it, right, and everyone. I'm like, when you just observe, I find my stress level goes down. I find I'm a little bit less of the t-y-k, personally, yeah. Thank God. Finally got to that. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. You knew you'd crack me geist. You got it. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from

Ryan Reynolds right after the break. Welcome back. Now more of my conversation with Ryan Reynolds. I was thinking about the almost 10 years, 10 years ago this summer is when somebody leaked video online. Yeah, I'm working on. We're hunting this person down. Last time we talked to, it's been a while. I've got my best man on it. Yeah. He doesn't seem like that great of man. He's not great. No, he's not, no, not good at the job. Spineless, just a human jellyfish. Just taking your money. Ten years now. This retainer is out of control. But that's been ten years, and I was thinking about you, the way this movie has done, sort of putting yourself out there, this is a pivot point in your career, in your life, honestly. And to see it succeed this way

from where you were 10 years ago, just hoping somebody would like the video that was leaked online, That's kind of been an amazingly gratifying thing. Yeah, it changed my life, you know? I mean, part of like, also, like, I mean, I, you know, I've done a lot of, more so a while ago, like, a lot of different kind of work. And I've worked in movies that I think are really good. I mean, they're really well-crafted films

that maybe didn't make any money or anything that, but, like, might have been, like, you know, celebrated critically or audiences might have really loved it, but, like, it just did for whatever as and didn't catch fire. But I loved, I was the first time I was really gratified by returning the investment that someone made in me. And I thought that was kind of something I wanted to kind of carry with me as I kept moving forward in my career. And part of how that happened, I think was authorship, was having some authorship over how the story's told

or how this little tale or this little piece of IP that I'm lucky enough to play with how it's shaped. And that changed my life. Deadpool changed my life in that way. And yeah, I mean, no company, even Disney deserves to make a billion dollars off of a comic book movie. But, hey, I mean, I am proud of the fact that not the money part of it, but I'm proud of the fact that that is a testament to butts in seats and people coming to see something that you worked on harder than maybe anything in my life. And as you said, part of the joy is working with your dear friend, Hugh, on this. I was looking back at an interview I did with him six years or so ago, and you had kind of floated the idea of this maybe out there.

And he shut it down so fast. He said, nobody wants to see Wolverine again. Maybe a cameo. We're not doing a movie. And here we are. So how did you get him around to it? Well, he always, you know, publicly we messed with each other a lot. But, like, he was always, he'd announced his retirement from Logan three days before

Deadpool 1 came out. And he saw it. And he kind of went, oh, that would have been fun to see that. And it was just this kind of thought that kind of flew in and out of his mind every now and again. But then we always see each. I mean, he and I, like, have very thoughtful conversations. We go for a lot of walks in New York and just chat. And it's one of my favorite things to do in the world, probably like once or twice a week when we're both in town.

We're like, you know, out doing that. And we'd always talk about it. We always talk about, like, oh, man, there's just got to be a way to do this. And, you know, one of the first pitches I'd crafted for Kevin Faggy was, in fact, a Wolverine Deadpool film. that was told in the style of Roshman, a first act that is through Deadful's point of view, second act through Wolverine's point of view, and the third act being subjective.

And that's the hero's tale, the third act. And I was really excited about it. Marvel just wasn't ready. They just couldn't quite wrap their heads around how we would resurrect this iconic and legendary character after a masterpiece like Logan, the movie Logan, that James Mangold did. And I said, who cares about a masterpiece?

Let's just dig up. up his old man river bones and, you know, stabs and bad guys. So, yeah, it was, it just came about with, out of frustration, really. I mean, Hugh, on August 14th, 2022, he stopped his car on the LIE and I called me. And, you know, when somebody calls in this day and age, you're like, are you dead? You've died, but you're talking. What's happening here? Where do they have you? They're holding a gun to You know, it was that kind of thing. And he was like, I want to come back. I just want to do it, you know?

Wow. So he really kind of authored his own return. And then ironically, I had a meeting that day with Kevin Feigy on a Zoom. Sean Levy and I, we were going to pitch him our sort of last gas pitch because we just tried to find something that would work. And, you know, and then we were going to say we're going to punt. Sean and I were going to say, we're going to go do another movie. We've both written one already that was ready to go and we'll revisit Deadpool later. But Hugh had called that day.

and I just pitched it. Wow. But it's a real testament to that fake until you make it thing. Because I pitched a story out of, like, it came right out of my butt. Like I had no, I did no plan for it. But this idea of a Wolverine

that comes back, he's not the same Wolverine. He's maybe the worst Wolverine. And his suit isn't just a suit. It's a hair shirt. You know, it's a, it's his own kind of, you know, punishment. His suit is basically his punishment. And that's what he's wearing. It's his shame.

And I loved that. And I loved that. And it all kind of came about just bullshit on the Zoom. Suddenly you were like locked in. We're text messaging underneath the Zoom. Like, that's the story. That's going to work. And then, yeah. And then we took a lot of direction from Hugh as well, who's, you know, known as character better than anybody. Yeah. That's how it's scary to write, write Wolverine dialogue is like the scariest thing I've ever done in life. So you basically, like, blacked out on a Zoom. And on the other side of that was his history. It's like that moment in old school with Will Farrell when 70 speaks like algebra fluently. In the debate. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I forget what it was. Yeah. Yeah. So I know how Hollywood works. This feels like a good end to Deadpool.

But if you make a billion dollars, they want more. Do we feel like Deadpool has a future? I don't know. Like, I'm not being coy. I genuinely don't know. I do know that Deadpool tends to work best utilizing scarcity and surprise, I think. And so I don't know. It has to be the right reason.

Also, this is kind of ticked every box that I would ever hope for the character. Also, I think that Deadpool is a born supporting character. I don't think he's actually like that. I'm meant to be like a lead protagonist. He works, operates much better as a supporting character. So I, you know, I could see that. I could see, like, popping it.

I do like writing these in this world, so I would love to keep doing that, be it Deadpool's involvement or no involvement, I don't know, but I don't know. I don't have no plans at the moment. I'm not making that up. I know people are saying, oh, you guys are already, no. I didn't mean to rush you along.

Let's celebrate this one for a minute. This is great, but what's next? Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you. Would you enjoy it for two days? Yeah, that's not, yeah, exactly. I think it's, yeah, we're going to take some time off and just rest and recoup and beat parents. And as you may know, you're not the only one in your home

with a very successful movie right now. Yes, Blake. one, two with the box office. It ends with us, yeah. Incredible film, incredible performance by her. I mean, amazing, yeah. I don't know. It just seems like one of those, something is, are we in a sim? Like, what's happening? I don't understand what's happening here. And, you know, and just so unbelievably proud of how she's navigated that film and really kind of dug into the sort of core values that she sees in this character of a woman who contains multitudes and a woman who is not defined by any one transgression, a man made that she still gets to experience her joy

and complexity and all these things. She really grabbed on to some ideas that dumb, dumb over here never would have grasped, I think. And I was like, oh, God, that is interesting to create or to portray a character who isn't just rooted in this victim mindset to portray somebody who has had something terrible happen to them. somebody who can rise above that and see that you're not going to be defined by this thing. You still get to be who you choose to be. You get to have your joy and your multifaceted life.

And I thought it was such a fascinating and smart direction. Yeah. It was where I'm really excited for her. I'm really excited for all those folks around there. It's pretty great. Despite your successful and happy marriage, you're famously vicious professional. rivals. So did you say to her, I beat you by that much at the box office?

Only time my life I've ever dreamt of coming in second. I think that would have been, yeah. And there are moments, like, the numbers are always different. So, like, Friday she beat us. Right. And Saturday, we beat her. And they're like, you know, so Monday, today, they beat, they beat us. So I love that. But I just, yeah. No, I think that's like the sign of a good relationship. It be it a friendship or a marriage or anything is rooting for each. other, you know. It's always been the one kind of constant with Blake and I is that, like,

you know, we really root for each other. And I think that I never really realized it until recently. I think that's a hallmark of a good relationship, for sure, of a healthy relationship, you know, wanting someone else to win. Like Hugh, I mean, when I'm being friends with Hugh, I want him to win. You know, I want to see him succeed. You know, I want to see him grow and kick and, you know, and I love that. I love that people do grow and, and change. I was sort of like was thinking about this last night a bit, like, you know, you, you, everyone sort of feels like people don't change, people don't, you know, but I actually believe that they really do. I was thinking about my, some of the stories I have about myself. I think about some of the, like,

just on, head-scratching mistakes that I've made in my life and that how, how lucky I've been to have the runway to grow from those. And the opportunity. opportunity to learn from many of those mistakes. And I think about the stories I have of myself when I'm younger. And it changes. My dad is a great example, too. Like, I have stories about my dad that have held on to forever, and I have to revisit them because I have to ask myself, is that true?

Is it that black and white? Is it that, you know, and it's not, you know. So people do change. You actually can change your own past, I think, in that way, too, as you look back and actually sort of try to understand how did I utilize the story I had for myself or the story I had about my dad in order to make something else make sense. Yeah, it's interesting. You have this, what becomes almost family mythology.

Yeah. And then you get to a certain age and you start thinking, was that what I thought it was? Did that happen the way I remember it? Yeah. Or the myth doesn't actually make sense now that I think about it. No. You go back and investigate the myth. and kind of pull it apart a little bit.

And maybe people don't know, but something you and I share is that both of our dads have or had Parkinson's disease. That's kind of how we first got to know each other through the Michael J. Fox Foundation. And we're coming up almost a decade since your dad passed away.

Yeah, 2015, yeah. Yeah, coming up on that anyway. As you sit now and look back on your dad's journey through Parkinson's, what do you think now at this point of your life? I think, I don't think about his disease, really. I don't ever think about that. I think about like the, I think about how, how I sort of shaped our relationship, the narrative of our relationship.

And I see so much more, I see, I see as I've gotten older and I'm a father, so many things I, the brush I painted my father with, the idea that he screwed this thing up. or he always did this and never did this. The stuff says, I don't know is that true. You know, and I think the things that I did not like about my father are actually the things that I didn't like about me. And I think he's an easy dartboard for that. So like, and a man made mistakes, trust. I'm not saying that he didn't.

I'm not paving over that, you know, those moments with some sort of fairy tale. But I also know that, like, it is not that simple. And it's taught me a lot of lessons in life in general, just like how, you know, how my own perception of people in the world isn't as reliable as maybe I like to think it is. So what brought you around to that, Ryan? Was it having your own kids and evaluating what that meant to be a father? Yeah, I think I always had a fear that I would be, you know,

my dad was a mystery to me, right? So I didn't really ever have, I think, like, conversations with them. Like, comes just where I felt like we were really talking, like he's showing me who he is as a person or what his core value system really is or, you know, he sort of spoke in catchphrases, you know, it's like a strange kind of thing. And I, I, as I've become, as I've grown into fatherhood and, you know, kind of grown into it and understanding that, like, the last great loves I will ever have are my kids, you know, I, um, I see those things coming out. Like, I see how I am not necessarily him. And in that relief that came with that allowed me to kind of revisit the past and go, well, what, yeah, what did I, how, what did I, how, why did I do that? Why did I romanticize this man as being kind of deficient as a father or, you know, any of those things. And for sure, there were moments that, you know, I look back and like, that was not good, not good parenting at all. But there are a lot of moments where I think, I think other things too. I'm like, well, he was there. He's like, guys there. He's always there at a football game. So I was there. of baseball game. Even if he wasn't speaking to me about something, he was still there and his trench coat across the way,

working his ass off every single day for his four kids. And we didn't have any money, but we had a roof over our head and we had some food in the fridge. And like, that's enough when you could look back at it. And I also think like all those, I don't know if you have this too, but you think about every experience he'd had good in battle. They all led to hear, right? So like, you're like, oh, do you have any regrets?

Or would you go back and change something? Not even my worst mistakes, they offered me these crazy avenues of learning, and I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't fuck up in this moment, or screw up that, you know. Totally agree. No, totally agree. I mean, I was reading through your sort of your dad's story,

and my gosh, is it almost shot for shot, our story, which is diagnosed at a pretty young age. My dad was 47, 48, yeah. And denial for a long time. In fact, we didn't name it for a long time. I was a teenager, so I was a teenager, so I didn't think through it enough. But that age group, too, I think is very prideful.

And, like, you know, I didn't. My dad, now my dad said Parkinson's, I think, three times. Wow. Yeah. In his entire life, to me. Generational. And my dad's from the Midwest. It's a little more, you know, they didn't have therapists in the town where he lived.

No, no, no. But the idea that it took years before we named it. Yeah. And there was always the neurological thing like that as a neural thing? And then finally my sister, I'm like, is the neurologically Parkinson's disease? Yes. The Michael J. Fax? And they go, well, yes, it is.

So that was kind of your experience as well? Absolutely. But I can also see why neurological condition might sound a little bit less threatening or vulnerable than Parkinson's disease. You know, disease, you go. It was my experience, exactly, to a T. Like, you and I and your pop, I mean, yeah, that's the exact same roadmap. And I understand it.

You know, I get it. My dad was like a prideful kind of guy. I think his physical strength was a huge asset to him. You know, he didn't go to college. He didn't do that. All those things that, like, you know, he wanted for us to do. And boy, did I let him down there. But he, yeah, he was very prideful, and that's a, I think that is very common in that, that age group

and those folks who, you know, lived in that, grew up in that era, you know. And it's interesting to see, like, how now, like, we, you know, having kids at our age and our, you know, it's just so different. There's so many tools available to us. There's so many, like, resources available to, you know, my kids never believe it. But, you know, when Blake and I will go out for dinner or something like that, the entire time is spent talking about how could we be better parents? Like, how can we, like, address their needs and ways. It's just like I can't even imagine my parents having those conversations without. Right.

Yeah. Just going, oh, God. This feels like chemotherapy. The cancer's gone. Let's enjoy dinner. Let's just live in here forever. It's so true. We go to these restaurants.

and sit at that table and just talk about our kids for two hours. Pictures and videos of our kids. Exactly. That's who we are. It's what we do. So you're teaming up with Acadia Pharmaceuticals. And because of some of the things you saw in your father and your mom saw in your father over the years and you think it's important that people look for some of these signs. Yeah, you know, it's working with the Michael J. Fox Foundation

for so many years as well, just like I got, You know, sometimes it's like drinking information out of a fire hose. You know, you kind of get a lot of information quite quickly. And this is one disease where I think, you know, there's an enormous sort of leapfrog effect and the knowledge people have about how it works. What is, you know, what are some of these other symptoms around it? And a lot of this is based in wishing that I had some kind of resource when my dad was sort of at the apex of his, disease and sickness and if I'd understand, understood some of these symptoms.

I mean, you know, the fact that my dad was experiencing hallucinations and he was experiencing, you know, delusional thoughts. And I didn't, I had no idea that I just kind of cast it as, oh, he's losing his marbles. Yeah, he's losing his nuts. He's, yeah, his mind is kind of going, you know, and that's a, I got how I would be horrified of somebody, you know, did that with me, you know, I'd be horrified if people sort of just, you know, through this sort of like pedantic kind of dog bone diagnosis out like that. I wish we'd known, like I wish we'd known that that was a side effect. And if, you know, because it's, I think it's nearly half of all Parkinson's patients experience this. And I, had I known, I think I, I would have handled it better.

I think I would have been a much more patient person. I think my father would have felt way less alone. I mean, you know, especially the last few years of his life, he's so isolated. I mean, it was just because he was not, he had no kind of, didn't seem like he had too much of a grip on reality. And of course, Parkinson's, at its advanced days, I'm not sure if your dad is there where you can't really hear his voice very well. And when you do hear it, it's, I don't understand where he is in his mind. So he must have just felt horribly alone. And I was so kind of limp. I had no idea how to, you know, how to, how to help them or talk to them even, you know, and I found that I kind of shut them out a little bit. And I, so I look back at it with some, you know, some,

not regret so much as just wishing I'd known some of this stuff before. No, and there might have been, you know, I don't think there were treatments available for this particular symptom back then, but there are now. And, you know, I said it to my brother a while ago, he had a knee replacement surgery. I was like, it's nice getting a knee replacement surgery in 2024 and not 1986. Yeah. You know, like it's, you know, and we'll say that again, about 2045. That's right.

You know, and go, it's not 2024. Right. You know, but here and now, there's, like, amazing things happening and, you know, amazing science and treatments and all kinds of stuff. So, really, it's just about sharing that story and letting people know that, like, you're not really alone in it. Like, it's a, you don't have to have the same experience I had or my mom had or my brother's had.

You can, you know, you can really, you know, actually affect some change. Yeah. And even just hearing you say it. and maybe they can identify it. Oh, this is something specific that we can do something about instead of having the reaction that I would have had and you had, which is like, I don't know what to do. Seems like he's losing it.

Stick around for more, my conversation with Ryan Reynolds, right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Ryan Reynolds. Your mom, your wonderful mother, is an important part of this effort as well. I don't think people fully appreciate the role of the spouse, the caregiver, the toll it takes on her as well. Caregivers fatigue.

Caregivers fatigue. My mom is the same way. I get emotional talking about it because, man, they go through it in a way that if you're not there every day, you don't fully appreciate. No. And you can, you know, I get emotional thinking about it too, but like, you know, the amount of, you know, difficulty and pain and isolation she felt. that she just kind of swallowed down and never, you know.

And I don't really want to get into like what hallucinations or what kind of delusional experiences. My father was having as a result of this disease, because I don't want it to feel anecdotal, but I do know and I can say with some degree of confidence that it was very traumatic for my mother. And like I, you know, she would never say a word to any of us, but I could hear it in her voice.

And I remember, you know, you know that feeling when you just prod a little bit more and then it like comes out and I remember her having just the worst time you know just being in actual hell and I just remember flew to out to I was living in LA this is many many many years ago and I flew home and it's packed her stuff we're going let's go wow this is not spend another day doing this not not because you don't want to because you're not qualified yes right right and that was I think a turning point for her was a turning point for her was a turning point for her own agency to remember that she's alive and vital. And, you know, yeah.

And for me, too, just to be able to, like, you know, pay that forward with my mom who's always been there. I've always been kind of a source of, like, a wellspring of compassion. And she's the reason I'm tactile with my kids. And I, you know, it's, yeah, because when you experience that when you're younger, you share that with your own kids.

And it's, yeah. That was a big moment for you to do that, because there's pride on that side of the relationship, too. Like, this is our house. I'm going to take care of this. Even though there's a lot of pain associated with it, we don't need your help. And they get sort of cocoonish about it, you know?

Yeah. Well, good for you for doing this. It's so important to identify that stuff. Do you think it sounds like you've done a good job of remembering the guy your dad was before Parkinson's and not, like you said it right at the outset, that not associating him with Parkinson's, but getting back to who he was. Because I struggle with that sometimes

because it's been 30 years. And my dad is hilarious and so quick and all the things he is. And when you start to lose some of that, like the recency blocks out the past. No, no, totally. 100%. And memories are so weird and abstract.

But I think if the memories of my father, they're not like an intellectual thing, they're DNA thing. I see that, you know, some of the gifts I got from my father are, you know, I would rather, you know, I would rather lose with integrity than win with shit. And that was like something that was just who my dad fundamentally was. You know, he was a guy that had integrity. He had a North Star. And I, you know, I will never forget that.

I have a million examples in the back of the catalog of my brain of him showing that. And it wasn't performative. He wasn't doing it to show his sons. This is just who he was. And a guy that understood the value of living within your means and helping and giving back to a certain degree. And so some of those things that he imbued in me, those are my memories. The memories are acted out in my life and the parts of myself that I'm most proud of.

Are real elements of my dad and his stamp and my mom, certainly, as well. And so I feel him with me in all of that stuff. And I see it in my kids, too, which helps it. It comes back to life again, like, oh, your sense of humor is like my dad's, you know what I mean? They're lucky to have their grandparents around, so they see it. But like, it's there. But how, I mean, genuinely, too, like, even if life wasn't perfect, and it wasn't perfect in my house at all, it's chaos a lot of times. But every, you know, every sort of maladaptive or adaptive survival mechanism we all have are results of that.

Yes. That insipid burgoo of weird domestic life in the age. 80s in our, you know, blue-collar homes. And, you know, I wouldn't trade it for the world. You know, I really wouldn't. Landed you right here? Yeah. I mean, it did.

All roads led to here. And I think, yeah, I think about that really often. I think it's why I wasn't swallowed alive by the, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the ass of show business a long time ago is because I came into it with a kind of, um, a sense that, like, this is not. totally real. Like, and a sort of heart, in my hard drive is a, like a constant sort of usurping my own belief in who and what I am.

So there's no, you know, like I would say to somebody, when they say something awful to me, I'm like, you can't hurt me. You can't say anything worse to me than I say to myself every single day. So, and some of that comes from growing up in a household like that. I think it's why I'm, I have a good head on my shoulders now. Before I let you go, can we just say a word about our mutual friend Michael J. Fox? We're both on the board of the foundation. We've both run the marathon for the foundation.

We've done all those things. But man, it's hard to overstate the impact he's had, obviously, with the foundation, but just on a personal level of being able to point to him, talk about a North Star and say, that's how you do it. You keep going. You look for something better down the road for people who are coming after you. I just talk about I get emotional thinking about him too, because he has for both of us, I think,

been somewhere to look when it feels overwhelming. Yeah, and I think what he's done is a great cultural judo move to redirect energy into something that made millions of people, not just in America or Canada, all of the world feel less alone. Like when one of the most powerful people in show business is willing to really just reshape their entire existence in life, to create a resource that is inexhaustible,

that is dynamic that helps everybody, not just the people who have Parkinson's, but the people who live with the people who have Parkinson's. And it's one of the things with this initiative as well. Michael's website at his foundation is a huge resource. But also, more to Parkinson's.com, which is part of the initiative that I'm talking about with my mom, is another just wellspring of information and resources

and help for families everywhere. Not just the people that are suffering from this disease, but the friends, the family, the caregivers, everyone. Michael is like a genuine trailblazer. And how many people get to say they're a trailblazer in several different industries? The second one, I think, is as important. I would even define, it would be lazy to define Michael

as a movie star or even a philanthropist. He's multitudes of things. And what he did, I think, has changed people's lives, left, right, and center. And I think was incredibly brave. And he embraced a vulnerability that I think a lot of people would struggle with. Especially someone in the public eye. You don't get to be as fallible in that space. And it's not encouraged to be human.

And, like, you know, Sam, falling apart. Yeah. Not feeling right. Right. And watching still that Davis Guggenheim, doc on Michael. If you just see still, if you're going to see one doc, still Michael J. Fox's

story is just so beautifully told. Yeah, I love him. I just like really genuinely love him. He's a guy that like, you know, we orbit each other every year or two. We get, you know, come a lot closer and I have just some of the best experiences with him and his family. I think the example for me is you don't have to

retreat. If you get Parkinson's disease, it's not retreat and go and it's over. No, no. Go. Go. go, go, go figure out how we're going to fix this. What can we do, be vulnerable? But I think if I use him as a kind of, you know, as a springboard for all kinds of things. Totally. Not just dealing with something that is painful or difficult or adversity or blah, blah.

My work for my parenting, it's a great, it's just a great lesson that you go over and over and again. Like, don't, you know, don't just sit back and like let something overwhelm you, like move back. Also, the fact that he created the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is literally, like, he always says, designed to go out of business, that he will have done his job if that business is dead. Yes. Is, I think, really, really beautiful. And the funny thing happened on the way to Parkinson's gala or event every year is a pretty great testament to what he's built.

And he's still up there every year on stage, playing the guitar. Yeah, yeah. Dude, thanks so much for your time today. Always a pleasure. Great to see you. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. It's amazing.

My big thanks again to Ryan Reynolds for a great conversation about movies, about his career, and most importantly to both of us, our dads. If you're one of the few people who has not yet seen Deadpool and Wolverine, you can check it out in theaters now. My thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of these conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC

where you can actually see these conversations with your eyes in full technical color. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday sit-down.