Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer have all the bantz as gaming avatars in comedy actioner FREE GUY – so we asked them to use that chemistry to interview each other about the experience of working together on a film they promise is a ‘fastball of joy’. Here’s Deadpool and Villanelle doing Total Film’s job for us…

WORDS JANE CROWTHER

COVER STARS Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer appear in the much-delayed Free Guy.

GUY AROCH, DISNEY

Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer are staring down the lens of a Zoom call from New York, peering at the cover of Total Film from May 2020. “Wow. The salad days of yesteryear…” deadpans Reynolds in his inimitable cadence, recalling the last time we all sat down together to discuss Free Guy; a poppy actioner that sees Reynolds as a NPC in an open-world videogame who decides to wrestle control of his life. Then destined for a July 2020 release, before it was shifted to Christmas, then again to May 2021 and finally, finally coming out late summer, Free Guy’s themes of community, personal responsibility and the feeling of being stuck in a weird alt-reality will likely take on more resonance in a world just emerging from Covid. But to Reynolds and his co-star, Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer (playing avatar Molotov Girl in the matrix and game designer Milly in the real world), Free Guy is more about fun, escapism and the popcorn giddiness of a big movie on a Friday night. As can-do actors playing characters determined to shape their own destinies, we thought it only right that they should conduct their own interview. “How kind,” says Comer. “Very 2021 of you,” nods Reynolds. So what happened when TF put our feet up and let them grill each other on auditions, stunts and getting the giggles?

JODIE COMER: You must have loads of projects that come across your desk, Ryan…

RYAN REYNOLDS: I don’t have a desk.

JC: No, that’s true. But you must see loads of projects and scripts. You have your finger in all the pies.

RR: Right? These are pie-fingers. It’s what I do.

JC : [laughs] Why did you think Free Guy was a good idea? How did that come to you?

RR: Shawn [Levy, director of Free Guy] and I had been looking for a film to do together for years. I just, on a whim, sent this script to him. I sent him an email. It was the email to convince Shawn to do the movie, where – he doesn’t know this – where I convinced myself to do the movie. Like, have you ever tried to convince someone of something that you didn’t totally believe in or know? And then I realised, ‘Wait, holy shit, I have to do this movie.’ It was mostly because I felt like the movie was just a fastball of joy. I wanted to feel something like I felt when I watched Back To The Future as a kid. And it felt like it had those Amblin tones infused into it, which I was weaned on. Indiana Jones and Back To The Future and E.T. and all these kind of films were the ones that really made me want to do what I do. I felt like this touched on something optimistic. It was funny and fun, and didn’t leave me feeling cynical in any way.