Movies - TV
Why Wesley Snipes Didn't Like Working With Ryan Reynolds In Blade 3
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
During the filming of 2004’s “Blade: Trinity,” Wesley Snipes ran into issues with several people for all sorts of reasons, including then rising actor, Ryan Reynolds. The character of Blade was stoic, intense, and cool, and Snipes took a method approach on set by introducing himself as Blade and staying physically away from his co-stars; Reynolds, however, wanted to get him to crack.
In an interview with IGN, Reynolds talked about the kind of adlibs he did to get Snipes to smile. In one scene, he did “a dime-store psychoanalysis of him where I say, 'You ever thought about sitting down and talking with someone, getting in touch with your inner child, and also you might want to try blinking once in a while.' He just looks at me like he's gonna turn me into ass pulp."
Reynolds did not do these things with ill intentions and mentioned that acting “is a vulnerable process [...] So whatever it takes for [Snipes] or anyone else to get through that in a way that is artistically fulfilling to them, I have the utmost respect for." However, it turns out that according to one of his co-stars, Patton Oswalt, Reynolds’ ad-libbing was actually needed to keep the film moving.
In one instance, the blind character of another co-star, Natasha Lyonne, accidentally grabbed Snipes by the face, which he didn’t like, so Jessica Biel and especially Reynolds started to improv in order to lighten the mood. There were also times when Snipes just wasn’t there to film, so Oswalt and others “would all just think of things for [Ryan] to say and then cut to Wesley's face not doing anything because that's all we could get from him.”
For all his efforts, Reynolds did not succeed in getting Snipes to laugh, saying, “The guy's Blade. Hopefully, on the inside, he's laughing kind of on the inside, I don't know? It was a challenging process.” Reynolds also mentioned how he got to hone his acting skills playing off of co-stars like Parker Posey, so despite not becoming friends with Snipes, he had a great time on set.