Ryan Reynolds Makes Public Plea For Awards Shows to Finally Give Stunt Workers the Recognition They Deserve
This year, a lot of people have shown the love to stunt workers in the entertainment industry. For years, actors and filmmakers made it clear that stunt performers were the unsung heroes of filmmaking who deserved their own category at the Oscar’s, but the issue came to the forefront this year with the film The Fall Guy.
Ahead of the release of the stuntman film, at the Academy Awards show in March, stars of the movie, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt took the stage to introduce a video tribute celebrating the stunt community.
The video montage celebrated more than 100 years of Hollywood stunts, from classic feats by Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton to modern scenes from films like John Wick, Mission: Impossible, The Matrix, and more.
Now, Deadpool & Wolverine star Ryan Reynolds has also made a public plea for the stunt workers in the business. In a new social media post, Reynolds honored the performers who stepped in for actors to make the complex action scenes happen and hoped that their work would be more widely recognized.
Reynolds shared on X: “Stunt work doesn’t have a category at The Oscars and I hope that’ll change someday. So many films have smashed it this year. Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Chaplin were stunt performers as well as filmmakers.
“Telling stories with their entire bodies. This [Deadpool & Wolverine] stunt team over-delivered. A lot of them are friends I’ve worked with for years and I’ll spend the rest of my days doodling their names in my Heidi Stationary, dotting all the ‘i’s’ with little hearts.”
Reynolds gave a shoutout to Alex Kyshkovych, who he says he’s worked with since the first Deadpool movie, adding: “He not only doubles me — he’s the Fight Coordinator. I’d take a sledgehammer to the face for Alex. Or rather, I’d ask Alex to take a sledgehammer to the face for Alex.
“Second Unit Director/Supervising Stunt Coordinator, George Cottle is a HUGE GET. You’ve seen his genius in Spider-Man NWH along with a ton of other gems. His skill is world class and he made the entire film better. I’d let Alex to take a rusty fork to the eye for George.”
The actor also mentioned that it was “mind-boggling” how much Hugh Jackman does a lot of the stunts himself but noted that Daniel Stevens “steps in for the truly dangerous stuff.
He’s been “Wolverining” a long time. As we know, Wolverining is HARD. I’d ask Alex to eat the crab salad I left on the dashboard for three straight days for Dan.”
“Huge shoutout to Andy Lister for bringing a new and insane Wolvie gear to the Deadpool Corps fight as well,” he said, before ending with, “If you’d like to see @TheAcademy recognize the amazing work of stunt teams ACROSS THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY, let them know!”
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