Morena Baccarin's Romantic Deadpool Scenes Were Hilariously Awkward To Film

When Fox's giddily R-rated superhero rumpus "Deadpool" bounded into theaters on February 12, 2016, it presented its namesake as the antithesis to the do-gooders in the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unlike those clean-cut superhero dweebs, this was a film about a Marvel character who curses like a sailor, shoots first and asks questions never, and has sex — a lot of it. Indeed, director Tim Miller devotes a whole montage to mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) and his former sex worker girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) engaging in amorous congress on different holidays. (Naturally, in celebration of International Women's Day, Vanessa straps on a dildo for a pegging session.) 

In contrast to the film's juvenile facade, though, Wade and Vanessa's love story is surprisingly heartfelt. "Deadpool" reveals that Wade underwent a medical procedure — one we can safely assume was not sanctioned by the Department of Health and Human Services — to trigger his latent super-healing abilities after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. But while the process was effective in reversing the cancer, it left the Merc With a Mouth with heavy scarring all over his body. As his bartender buddy Weasel (T.J. Miller), who should probably avoid a career as a sensitivity reader, matter-of-factly informs him: "You look like an avocado had sex with an older, more disgusting avocado." 

Wade, having ghosted Vanessa on the heels of his diagnosis, spends the rest of the film desperately trying to restore his handsome features, believing this is the only way to ensure she will love him again. "Deadpool," in other words, is really about alpha-male insecurity. Obviously, Vanessa still loves Wade in his altered form, and the pair eventually reconcile. However, when it came time for them to seal their reunion with a kiss, things got a little awkward for Baccarin.

Thanks to their simulated sexcapades, Reynolds and Baccarin had to get comfortable filming with one another on the first "Deadpool," and fast. Luckily, the pair was already acquainted in real-life, which made things easier. "We were very lucky from the get-go," Reynolds told Desde Hollywood near the time of the film's release. "We knew each other before, it takes a very unique person like Morena to play this role. You have to be able to go toe to toe with a guy who is a mentally unhinged mercenary. She does it so beautifully and we knew the first time she did that scene with me in the bar we were so right."

Being a kindred spirit with Wade, Vanessa reacts to seeing his new face for the first time with a mixture of vulgarity and genuine affection, telling him, "After a brief adjustment period and a bunch of drinks, it's a face ... I'd be happy to sit on." That she needs a moment to adjust to their new reality is both understandable and something that Baccarin herself required. "I'm not going to lie to you: looking at that thing was crazy, and the first time I saw it I said, 'I got to kiss that?'" she joked to Desde Hollywood. "There was red stuff coming out but it was all very alive, it was oozing. But that's what was beautiful about them, that they're going to make it."

Not that this made actually kissing Reynolds with his prosthetics on any easier. "I keep saying that kissing him in that mask is like kissing a giant latex condom," Baccarin told People ahead of "Deadpool 2" reaching theaters in 2018. "It basically just smells like rubber the entire time."

While Baccarin didn't spend a lot of time kissing Reynolds in his "Deadpool" makeup during "Deadpool 2," it was only because Vanessa was ingloriously killed off or "fridged," to use the typical comic book lingo, at the start of the film, leaving Wade to complete the rest of his arc in the movie without her. Don't worry, though; she got better and was back in action by the end credits thanks to Wade's time-travel meddling in one of the sequel's many post-credits scenes, paving the way for her return in "Deadpool & Wolverine."

Apparently, though, Wade and Vanessa are splitsville by the time the third entry in the series (but the first one set in the MCU) picks up. The pair are no longer wearing matching Christmas sweaters (and not much else) when the movie sends Wade on an odyssey across the multiverse with Hugh Jackman's cantankerous, clawed Wolverine (but not the one seen tragically perishing in 2017's "Logan"). 

"I think it's really cool that they are such well-met characters and that their lives [...] You can see them in and out of each other's lives constantly," Baccarin told Screen Rant. She added that Reynolds and director Shawn Levy did "a really great job of always reinventing their [Wade and Vanessa's] relationship and making it interesting, but maintaining the core thing that keeps them always coming back to each other."

Is Baccarin hinting at Vanessa joining the parade of previously-introduced Marvel characters whose alternate reality variants pop up in the MCU? And will Wade and Vanessa's relationship remain the emotional glue holding the raunchy sandwich that is the "Deadpool" franchise together? All shall come to light when "Deadpool & Wolverine" charges into theaters on July 26, 2024.