Deadpool & Wolverine is taking the world by storm, and Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are doing some reflecting.

Ahead of the film’s release, they chatted with Blavity’s Shadow and Act along with director Shawn Levy and executive producer Wendy Jacobson and co-stars Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen and Rob Delaney.

Here’s a portion of our conversation with Reynolds and Jackman below:

One of the things that I really love is the moment when Wade is just like, “I want my life to matter and I want it to matter to the people that love me the most.” For the both of you being in this industry, I want to know what was that project that truly made you feel like, what I’m doing as an actor matters?

Ryan Reynolds: Oh, that’s a good damn question.

Oh I got my therapy from this, y’all.

Reynolds: Just a solid left hook, right after the bell.

Jackman: I’m going to say this character…it’s defined my career. It’s been the first movie I ever did in America, and it’s been 25 years I’ve been playing it. All around the world, I’ve met people who’ve named their children Logan. I’m not saying it’s because of me, but I think that character touches people and this world that he inhabits touches people that, yes, there’s wish fulfillment. It would be great to have claws and healing ability, but ultimately, it’s the human side of these characters that people relate to and touches them in different ways. Yeah, I’ve seen it really make an impact.

Reynolds: I think Clark Kent is the most interesting part of Superman for real. I think that’s the thing that makes it interesting. I do think that people, everybody has an inexhaustible supply and yearning to impress the people they love and mean something to the people they love, because I think we know deep down in our hearts that everything else is kind of an illusion and is going to go away. What is the thing? Denzel said it on a show once. He said, “You don’t see the U-Haul buried with the person.” All their worldly possessions aren’t going with them. So, I think we all want to leave something behind that sort of matters to people and that’s an easy thing to write, and it’s certainly an easy thing to perform, especially anyone who has family that means something to them.

But also too, what I find interesting about both your characters is it feels like they’re burdened with not being able to move forward from their past mistakes, and they’re not able to really move forward. It haunts them.

Jackman: You got it.

Reynolds: Yeah, they wear shame in different ways. Well, they buck shame in very different ways, but they have more in common than not. Deadpool deals with shame by deflection, and humor, and self-effacing, and blah-bitty-blah, and constant chatting, and he deals with just unblinking violence and aggression. I think they’re both equally kind of toxic and horrendous at times. It’s interesting to watch these characters have to sort of drop that facade and actually deal with stuff.

But I like with the both of you in your careers, you move with the punches, the wins, losses, and I really want to know, how have you learned to cope? Unlike your characters, how have you learned to cope and just continue to push forward?

Jackman: Continue to create things. It’s important to have the courage to look at what you’ve done that maybe hasn’t worked, and to see where you could do better and to understand, I guess, but I can have a tendency to dwell too much and beat myself up. I’ve learned over the years to go, okay, that may not have been my best. How can I do better, and to keep creating, to keep moving forward, and not dwelling in the past because it can really erode your confidence.

Reynolds: Yeah, I think… I don’t know. Every horrendous fucking mistake I’ve made in my life has led to something great, even if it’s just knowledge. Even if it’s just going like, oh, I feel really ashamed about that. I need to know more about why I made that choice and how I can move forward and make sure that not only do I not repeat that mistake, but someone else… I just think all of those things are so great. So yeah, nobody talks about the failures. That’s the freaking flour in the cake, man. That’s how it’s made. We were raised to be patting ourselves on the back and social media and Instagram culture where everything’s perfect and wonderful, but fuck man, the mistakes are where the good stuff happens, I think.

Deadpool & Wolverine is in theaters now.

Hugh Jackman

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