Ryan Reynolds Says Late Father Used ‘Simple Grunts’ to Communicate

Ryan Reynolds’ late father had a rather stoic demeanor, it seems.

During his conversation with Andrew Garfield for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Reynolds, 48, reflected on growing up with his father, James Chester Reynolds, who died in 2015 following a battle with Parkinson’s disease.

“My relationship with my father was very complicated and difficult,” Reynolds said in the video, released on Monday, December 9. “I come from a middle-class, blue-collar home, and my dad was of that generation where he was Clint Eastwood. Less is more. Simple grunts is how he communicated.”

Garfield brought up the topic of parents, revealing that his mother was “this pure angelic love energy.” The We Live in Time actor quipped, “So what did your mother do to you?”

Reynolds responded, saying, “It was my dad, Andrew — thank you for bringing that up.”

During his “Actors on Actors” appearance on Monday, Reynolds admitted that he’s looked back on his relationship with his father since he’s gotten older.

“People tell themselves stories about other people, and we have some responsibility as we grow older to question that a little bit. I’ve done that a bit more in the last five years,” he said. “I didn’t know myself until I was probably 40-ish. I ask that question often: ‘Was my dad as challenging as I like to think? Or am I romanticizing that to pave over all these other things with whatever the drug is.’ The story is not true; nobody’s black and white like that.”

The Deadpool & Wolverine star has brought up his dad on more than one occasion. Reynolds even spoke about his late father in a November 2023 episode of Welcome to Wrexham — discussing his own journey with parenthood. (Reynolds shares four kids with wife Blake Lively.)

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“My relationship with my father was almost exclusively tethered and held together by our mutual love of sports,” he explained in the Hulu docuseries. “My kids are obsessed with Wrexham. They’re obsessed with Wrexham.”

Reynolds previously credited his wife, Lively, 37, for helping mend his paternal relationship. She pushed the actor to see his dad shortly after their oldest daughter, James, was born in December 2014.

“All family relationships come with some complications,” he told Mr. Porter in 2018. “For better or worse, all roads lead to here. At the end of the day, it’s easier to focus on the good stuff than the bad. My father died soon after my daughter was born, but he got to see her, which makes me happy.”