Ryan Reynolds’ body of work

Ryan Reynolds’ body of work Image

Initial photos of Ryan Reynolds in Green Lantern (out Friday) were treated like a kryptonite cake at Superman’s birthday party. Fans called the suit silly and an insult to the long-running comic book series.

Reynolds was never worried.

“I expected that reaction,” he says. “I don’t think some people realized that the suit — in the mythology of the film — is made of energy. It’s not made of Spandex or luge wear. I always knew the suit was going to be CGI.”

Everything from Reynolds’ green-and-black outfit to the planet Oa, home world of the Green Lantern Corps, was added long after the filming stopped. But the Canadian actor, 34, knew the final product would look great.

“It’s amazing how you can go from a soundstage — which is four walls and a blue screen — and suddenly you’re in a whole new world,” says Reynolds.

The only thing that bothered him about the special effects was having to maintain a strict diet to fit inside the skin-tight suit before it was transformed in the computer. Reynolds could never understand why the tech team didn’t just CGI out any physical problems.

Going through a full body scan every two weeks — an experience Reynolds calls humbling — to use for creating the computer images was why he had to maintain his fighting form.

“I would think that I looked pretty good and then when I saw the three-dimensional views, I knew I had work to do,” Reynolds says. “I was wondering that if we do another movie, maybe they can just use the old scans?”

Reynolds has played comic book-inspired characters in Blade: Trinity and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He was lured back to the genre by Green Lantern, in which he plays Hal Jordan because he loved the idea of an arrogant, cocky and reckless guy suddenly having to take on the monumental task of being Earth’s defender.

The toughest part was all of the origin material. The Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern has been around since 1959, but the comic book has never found the same following as Superman or Batman. The back story was critical.

“To service the audience with the origin material in a very analytical way is sort of dangerous,” Reynolds says. “You have to find a way to make that entertaining and palatable.’’

McClatchy News Service

Ryan Reynolds’ body of work