Matthew Lawrence Says Ryan Reynolds Movie Had Issues
A horror/comedy film, Boltneck follows a student who brings his friend back to life using the brain of a serial killer. It was released in October 2000 to a 44% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Ryan’s amazing,” Matthew said. But back then, “he was a total schlub.”
“The production team was having a really hard time with Ryan,” Matthew claimed. “And this is young Ryan.”
Matthew said, as a child star, he knew his “way around the set by that point,” while Ryan was still fairly new to the industry. “I was dialed in. He wasn’t dialed in,” Matthew said. “He’d walk out, just wanted to kind of do his thing.”
Matthew claimed that production started “getting really upset” with Ryan — not just because of his independence but also because of the “bad Jim Carrey impersonation” he’d do. “They told him, ‘This is a bad Jim Carrey impersonation. This is not what we hired you to do. You can’t impersonate someone. You gotta do your own thing,'” Matthew recalled. “And he got upset at that. He was like, ‘I’m doing my thing.'”
According to Matthew, the director and crew eventually had a meeting to discuss “their frustrations on set.” One person apparently said of Ryan, “I can’t believe this guy. We had so much hope for this guy. He’s going nowhere.”
“They blamed that movie not working on him,” Matthew continued, “because they said there was this big conflict… And to be honest, I’m not even mad at Ryan in the sense that he actually stayed true to who he is authentically because he was trying to Deadpool it!”
“That’s always been his schtick,” Matthew said, “his thing.”
I am an editor for Vogue US , focusing on business and entrepreneurship. I love uncovering emerging trends and crafting stories that inspire and inform readers about innovative ventures and industry insights.
