“Green Lantern,” which stars A-List names like Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively and Peter Sarsgaard, is based on the DC Comics character Hal Jordan, a fighter pilot, who upon finding a mystical ring, is granted super powers.
EXCLUSIVE: Blake Lively: “For Your Own Safety, You Need To…”
The Green Lantern himself, Ryan Reynolds, took a few moments to speak to GlobalGrind about the highly anticipated film, what it was like working with Blake Lively and Peter Sarsgaard and how he channelled his own inner superhero, while expanding his imagination.
REVIEW: WORTH 12 BUCKS: “Green Lantern”
Check out “Green Lantern” hitting theaters everywhere today!
How “Green Lantern” savvy did you have to be to play Hal Jordan?
Well, you gotta know a little bit. I didn’t know everything about the character. In fact, admittedly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the “Green Lantern” growing up. I knew the basic kind of story but I got a pretty quick and comprehensive education as soon as I started the movie.
[pagebreak]
He’s a very popular character, you’ve got all these fans and all this pressure that must be on you. What’s going through your mind?
It’s a collective team effort. I’m only as good as the director and then you know, the special effects people involved.
I really looked at what I felt was very important, which is what is it that attracted the fan boys to this character to begin with. Why did they love him so much, you know and how can we service them and still service a broader audience because this movie is also designed for kids and adults alike. So you want to make sure that it’s palatable for everybody, but at the same time, you want to make sure that you can’t forget what it is about this character that they fell in love with about this character to begin with.
What was it like for you the very first time you put on the ring, the mask and said the oath?
Well, you don’t want to get that wrong. There are people out there that will find you and they will take your life in horrible ways (laughs). So no, you want to get that right, but I actually knew the oath early on before I even got the role. I somehow knew that, but I didn’t know that much about the mythology!
[pagebreak]
You’re always in great shape and you’re always training for everything that you do, but this one you’ve got to be digitally enhanced a little bit here, what’s that like?
Well, there’s the CGI aspect which is the suit. In the mythology, the character is made of energy, it’s made of will. He manifests it that way, so that’s not something I can physically put on every day, so that had to be rendered by computers, but that’s part of the deal. When you get a movie like this, you’ve got to take a big, deep breath and know it’s gonna be a long year not eating what I want and being in gyms. But then when you’re done, you just get to go back home and sit on the couch and shrink.
Tell me about the flying.
A lot of flying! It was not that difficult actually. It’s just so fast, these things, you move at 50 feet a second on these wires and once you stop, you feel like your brains and your organs are all back where you started from. I mean, it’s pretty tough stuff but you get used to it. You build up a bit of a tolerance to it.
[pagebreak]
You and Blake hit it off there. How’d you like working with her?
She’s great. She’s always cooking stuff so she made my life a little bit difficult showing up to set with a small army of cupcakes every day.
I like the ones that she would cook. Those are the ones — She baked these, I mean everything. On set she would say, I’m sure every member of the crew gained 20 lbs around her. She, mysteriously nothing.
