Ryan Reynolds has surprised Hugh Jackman at the opening night of his run of shows at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
READ MORE: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ review: a sarky, time-skipping superhero send-up
The Greatest Showman star launched his sold-out string of 24 shows at the iconic venue on Friday (January 24). The concerts see him performing tracks from his signature musical, as well as the likes of The Music Man and Les Miserables.
It was the latter that was invoked by Jackman’s Deadpool & Wolverine co-star Reynolds during the opening night, when he interrupted the performance.
“I was told this was going to be a comedy version of Les Mis as a one-man show,” Reynolds quipped. “We all said it was a terrible idea but he carried on. I see he’s duped me once again!”
Moving into more sentimental mode, Reynolds continued (via People): “This was the first major movie star I ever worked with, 16 or 17 years ago on X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And I was young still, I was impressionable. I was expecting going to this movie set with this guy right here, and I didn’t know, I really didn’t know what was gonna happen. … But what I saw was just about the best thing anyone could possibly experience if you’re working your way up in the industry.”
“I saw a movie star, a capital M movie star,” he continued. “He knew every single person’s name, even though he was making them up half the time. He showed a kind of courtesy and gentleness and curiosity, and he put value into every single crew member that we were working with.”
He went on to call Jackman “my gotcha for life,” before joking: “We were supposed to finish this bit where these two security gentlemen come and they try to take the mic for me – it’s like a struggle, and then they tase me and I go down, and then they hog-tie me and then they put me in the Radio City music garbage dump, and then they just light it on fire. But I wanted to actually just say, I love this man, I care about this man. He is, he is genuinely the best human being I know – and I have 4 children!”
Jackman replied from the stage: “I love you, Ryan Reynolds, I love you, man. Thanks for coming. And thanks for asking for a free ticket, too.”
Deadpool & Wolverine was the second biggest film of 2024, grossing over $1.3billion worldwide, with Reynolds and Blake Lively becoming the first married couple to take the top two spots at the US box office since Bruce Willis and Demi Moore in 1990.
In a three-star review, NME wrote: “Despite the A-list distractions (no spoilers here), Deadpool & Wolverine is really all about Reynolds and Jackman. In fact, it’s really all about Reynolds – with Jackman doing a heroic job of playing the surly straight man trying to keep up with Reynolds’ sweary killer clown. The first two Deadpool films were funny and violent and original, but this one shows Marvel’s most gloriously inappropriate superhero at his very best and worst.”
Reynolds, meanwhile, has recently been sued alongside his wife by It Ends With Us director and star Justin Baldoni, who alleges that they attempted to “destroy” him with false allegations of sexual harassment.
The post Watch Ryan Reynolds surprise Hugh Jackman at opening night of his New York concert series appeared first on NME.
