Ryan Reynolds Shares Hilarious Story of Making Denzel Washington Furious on SAFE HOUSE Shoot

Ryan Reynolds knows how to tell a good story, even when he’s the punchline. During a recent career talk at the Toronto International Film Festival, following the premiere of his documentary John Candy: I Like Me, the actor shared a hilarious but humbling moment from the set of the 2012 thriller Safe House, and it involves accidentally breaking Denzel Washington’s concentration while he was in the zone at the absolute worst time.

Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Safe House starred Reynolds with Washington as two agents forced into a high-stakes alliance while mercenaries close in. But according to Reynolds, the most tense moment of the shoot didn’t come from the action, it came from a ringtone.

Reynolds explained they were shooting the film’s emotional climax where Washington’s character is mortally wounded.

“He’s been shot, wounded, dying, admits all the stuff that he did wrong. Tears start rolling down his face. And suddenly you hear — and this is take two, by the way, because take one there was a technical problem — we hear [Frank Sinatra singing] ‘Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away.’”

That was Reynolds’ ringtone and it went off during Washington’s big death scene.

The crew was furious, and Washington himself broke character in frustration. As Reynolds remembers it, “Who the f*ck’s phone is that?”

Rather than fess up, Reynolds tried to deflect:

“I stand up and look at all the stuntmen around me, and I go, ‘Who the f*ck’s phone is that? Inexcusable!’”

Eventually the Assistant Director realized the guilty party was Reynolds. Reynolds recalled, still laughing:

“He was like, ‘D, can you do another one?’ And [Washington] was like, ‘We’re going to have to, aren’t we?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, [because of] the stunt men! Inexcusable!’”

Reynolds looks back on it as a self-inflicted embarrassment.

“Dumb-dumb is sitting on his phone. I’m dumb-dumb in this story. And I can feel everybody looking around like, ‘What the f*ck is happening right now?’ I can see Denzel with a tear in his eye.”

The a fun cringe-worthy memory from Reynolds, and I wonder if he eventually told Washington. Or if Washington will find out in this recent interview.

Source: Variety