Ryan Reynolds and The Adam Project | The second chance trip

Building on the success of Free Guy (The free man), Ryan Reynolds reteams with director Shawn Levy to deliver The Adam Project (Adam through time), a film directly inspired by the cinema of the 1980s. The Canadian actor, also an American citizen, does not hesitate to affirm that never before has one of his projects had had so many personal resonances.

Marc-Andre Lussier
The Press

The plot of The Adam Project is first set in 2050. Ryan Reynolds plays a 40-year-old pilot who uses a time machine to complete a mission. A few years out of step with the planned plan, Adam finds himself in 2022, facing himself at the age of 12, and, above all, facing a family bereaved by the disappearance of his father (Mark Ruffalo). This science fiction comedy, which also has its share of drama, allowed the actor to dig into a theme that touched him in an intimate way.

“Several aspects of this story resonate with my own life,” he confides to The Press during a videoconference interview. We can rarely settle everything as we would like with a loved one who leaves, be at peace with him. Sometimes life means that we are deprived of this opportunity. Personally, I never had the chance to really know my father, to know who he was, even if he was present in my life. I find it tragic to be missed, especially since I am just as responsible for this situation. This film evokes the fantasy of being able to do things again. Along the way, we infiltrated a love letter to the parents. »

Like an 1980s movie

With Shawn Levy, a Montreal-born director who fell in love with his career thanks to Free GuyRyan Reynolds was thus able to craft a film whose tone and style evoke the films of the 1980s, with which they both grew up.

“For us, it was a very frank will, from the start, explains the actor. The Adam Project contained all the elements that we liked and felt. It was obvious to us that a link could be established with Back to the Future, AND., The Goonies, Field of Dreams, in short, all those films that we saw in our youth and that reached audiences of all ages, both children and adults. »

After Dead Pool, Deadpool 2 and Free Guy, The Adam Project is the fourth film that Ryan Reynolds has also signed as producer. This function is in addition to those that the actor occupies as a business partner with various companies, in particular the Welsh football club Wrexham AFC.

“Producing a film is a huge burden, because then you have to dwell on the smallest details and find solutions to all the problems,” he says. And then most of the movies I’m in usually have elaborate effects. Our stories often require the creation of machinery that must be invented from scratch. That said, of all the feature films I’ve produced, this one is definitely the most personal. »

An amazing journey

The professional career of Ryan Reynolds is all the more astonishing as he himself admits having exercised his profession as an actor without passion for several years. Born in 1976 in Vancouver, where he grew up, he nevertheless landed his first roles at the age of 12.

“At home, I was the youngest of the four guys, often the target of the other three,” he says. At school, I was already doing improv and comedy. One day, a TV crew arrived to recruit young people for a children’s soap opera and I landed a role. My fee was $200 a week. I then went back to school taking odd jobs, but it was when I went to Los Angeles 25 years ago that it all really started. »

Ryan Reynolds has never been short of work in Hollywood, but it still took him a long time to really get involved with his whole being in his art.

“I would say it happened when I was 30! he said. That’s when I really realized what I wanted to do, what I wanted. When I understood that the most important element is how to tell a story, the passion came. When I produce a film, I also have the chance to be in the editing room. I am very strict with myself, even if it means cutting sequences when necessary. So much is at stake. Whatever fate awaits The Adam Project, my name will forever be associated with it. »

It should also be noted that with his wife, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds provided financial support to refugees from the war that the Russian government unleashed in Ukraine by doubling the donations made to the United Nations agency for refugees, to amount of 1 million dollars.

The Adam Project (Adam through time in French version) will be available on Netflix on March 11.

A first for Shawn Levy

Successful producer and director, to whom we owe the three films Night at the MuseumShawn Levy is the head of The Adam Project, a large-scale production that will be offered by Netflix. Even though he already has a relationship with the online broadcaster thanks to the series Stranger Thingsfor which he acts as executive producer in addition to directing a few episodes, the native Montrealer had never before directed a feature film intended exclusively for a platform.

“I’m still getting used to the idea, confided the filmmaker in an interview to The Press. There was a premiere of the film organized in Toronto, another in New York, and I was enjoying the moment, knowing that few people would have the opportunity to see it on the big screen. On the one hand, I love cinema on the big screen and I will make other feature films that will be shown in theaters first. At the same time, The Adam Project can be seen in 200 countries, often even in places that do not even have cinemas. There aren’t many blockbusters like this anymore with such a global reach and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to bring this story to such a wide audience. »