Ryan Reynolds Paid The ‘Deadpool’ Writers Himself To Have Them On Set For The First Film

The original Deadpool film presented its fair share of challenges for Ryan Reynolds. Not the least of which was having his co-writers on set.

“No part of me was thinking when Deadpool was finally greenlit that this would be a success,” the actor told The New York Times. “I even let go of getting paid to do the movie just to put it back on the screen: They wouldn’t allow my co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick on set, so I took the little salary I had left and paid them to be on set with me so we could form a de facto writers room.”

Ryan said that was a lesson.

“I think one of the great enemies of creativity is too much time and money, and that movie had neither time nor money. It really fostered focusing on character over spectacle, which is a little harder to execute in a comic-book movie.

“I was just so invested in every micro-detail of it, and I hadn’t felt like that in a long, long time,” Reynolds continued. “I remembered wanting to feel that more — not just on Deadpool, but on anything.”

Reynolds earned a co-writer nod on Deadpool 2 two years later. The trio has since reunited on the forthcoming Deadpool & Wolverine, joined by comic book writer Zeb Wells and director Shawn Levy.

Deadpool & Wolverine hits theater on July 26.