With the amount of attention Ryan Reynolds is getting for his much-talked about nude scene in The Proposal, you’d think the Canadian actor would be getting annoyed with all the questions.
“No, I’m happy to talk about it,” admitted Reynolds during a stop in Toronto to discuss his latest movie (in theatres next Friday). “It’s definitely something that when people see the film, they take away and talk about it over and over again so I’m happy to bring it up.”
For those uneducated about the film’s said sequence, lets just say it involves Reynolds and co-star Sandra Bullock literally running headlong into each other fully undressed. As Reynolds says, “It’s not a quick little flash or anything like that — you have to be perfectly comfortable taking your pants off around 40 or 50 crew members.”
Lucky for Reynolds, his nine year acquaintanceship with Bullock may have eased the awkwardness just as it aided in establishing chemistry between the stars.
After all, in The Proposal, Reynolds plays overworked assistant to Bullock’s bothersome book editor — that is, until her Canadian visa expires and she forces him to marry her in order to avoid being deported.
If that sounds like a pushy premise for a romantic-comedy, it may be because it shouldn’t be regarded as such.
“When we were making this, we didn’t really feel like we were making a romantic-comedy,” said Reynolds. “It’s more of a comedy to us. We were just going for laughs first and the romance was just kind of in there.”
With the focus centred on laughs, making the movie became a surprisingly relaxed affair and the frivolity seems evident on-screen. For Reynolds — who has previously criticized that the two greatest moments in filmmaking are when you first get a job and the moment you finish a movie — The Proposal may have even altered his outlook.
“A movie like this kind of changed my whole perspective on what filmmaking to be just because it was so much fun to shoot and typically that doesn’t translate onto the screen,” said Reynolds. “In this movie, it did in spades and I think it’s kind of forced me to re-frame that idea a little bit.”
Whether that means more movies with a pantless Ryan Reynolds — only time will tell.
On the web
• For trailers and photos for The Proposal, click here
