After nearly a decade of speculation, Ryan Reynolds has officially confessed to leaking the Deadpool test footage that ultimately convinced 20th Century Fox to green-light the film. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Deadpool & Wolverine actor admitted the infamous 2014 leak was his doing, and that he has no regrets.
“Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in,” Reynolds said during his TIFF appearance. “And I’m grateful that I listened to that instinct, and I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.”
The footage in question originated in 2012, when director Tim Miller created a CGI demo reel to illustrate what a live-action Deadpool movie might look like. Reynolds, who had first portrayed Wade Wilson in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, provided the voice in the test sequence. Though fans loved the concept, the studio showed no interest at the time.
“I’d shot test footage for it a couple years before, and the studio just didn’t want anything to do with it,” Reynolds recalled. The hesitation, he explained, came from concerns about backing an R-rated superhero project, a stark departure from the genre’s typically family-friendly tone.
For Reynolds, the passion project was deeply personal. “And Deadpool’s a fringe character. People didn’t really know who he was, and I loved him. I was obsessed with it because I loved that he knew he was in a comic book movie. It was kind of meta, it was kind of new. But the test footage existed, and it really was a case study of how this could work. And they just wouldn’t do anything with it.”
“Some a–hole leaks it online and I’m like, you know, looking at the guy in the mirror brushing my teeth,” he said with a laugh. “And I’m like, ‘Dude, what have you done? This could be punishable by law!’ But the internet forced the studio to say, ‘We’re gonna make this movie,’ and 24 hours later, that movie had a green light.”
The gamble paid off. Deadpool went on to become a massive box-office success, proving audiences were more than ready for an R-rated superhero. And now, Reynolds has finally confirmed the bold move that helped make it all possible.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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