Amityville Horror: Funnyman Ryan Reynolds
Bloody-Disgusting
By: SuperHeidi

Ryan Reynolds, hottie from Blade: Trinity and sarcastic smartass from so many more films is in The Amityville Horror. George Lutz is a bit of a stretch for Ryan, but he played it off well as a vampire hunting asshole in Blade. He talks to Bloody-Disgusting about his experience playing a psychotic, abusive, possessed George Lutz.

Q: One of the things we keep hearing from all of the filmmakers is, "Man we are casting this guy and he just doesn't belong in this movie." 

RYAN: That's what I want to hear afterwards (laughs). And they still feel that way (laughs). 

Q: And the clincher was that was the attraction; playing against type and so fourth. How did you feel about that? 

RYAN: That which he resists persists I imagine. You know I look at it like any other acting job. It's as hard if not harder either way if it were a comedy. It's just something I had never done; it wasn't something in my particular wheelhouse either. I was really into it though and I think that is half the battle is when you find somebody else who is an actor that is really, really intrigued by it and into it and is aggressively pursuing it. I think filmmakers take notice particularly if it's an unorthodox choice. 

Q: What is your opinion about what allegedly went on in the house? 

RYAN: Oh God, I mean… I don't know if my opinion is neither here nor there. I just wanted to tell the story as best I could according to the script. It's not a biography of George Lutz so I never met George. I never got into what he is like as a man and a person. I know that something awful happened in that house. We know that six murders happened in that house. We know a family moved in there a year later and lasted twenty-eight days; we know that. My job was just to bring that character to life in the script. 

Q: What does your house tell you to do? 

RYAN: My house? It tells me keep building shithead, your just going to keep pissing money away (laughs). I've been renovating my house for a long time. It started off as a little tiny floor and now it's a disaster. So that's what my house does. It sounds oddly like the contractor too that works on the house (laughs). 

Q: Is that a house here in Los Angeles? 

RYAN: Yeah. 

Q: Have you watched the original film or read the book? 

RYAN: I read the book when I was sixteen and it scared the shit out of me… only because of the true story stuff. When you're sixteen you know you're really into it but probably now it would still scare me. The movie I saw years ago and I felt like this was a worthy remake. It's not something that really has aged particularly well. I think for its day it was great but its one of the few movies that they are remaking that I thought, "Wow, this is interesting." You want to tell this story with the technology that is available now to these filmmakers. 

Q: Was it intimidating to play a character that is so much darker than anything you have ever played before? 

RYAN: Yeah, it's a little intimidating but once you get into it you know it's that first day like when I used to do this sitcom and I would always want to throw up before every episode and we did ninety of them. It's always that first moment, you've got to get that first moment out of the way and then you're fine; that first laugh or first what ever. For me the first day as George Lutz I just had to get it out of the way. 

Q: What was the scene? 

RYAN: The first scene I shot was a wood chopping scene with the kid and it was strange for me because I had never worked with rage before on film. This guy is so rage full. I never played the horror aspect I played the psychological aspect because I can't tell you what it is like to be possessed so I had to find something concrete and tangible that I could play so I let Andrew Douglas shoot the horror movie and I shot the drama of George Lutz. We kind of went into it with that agreement. Those scenes were hard with the kid. Particularly when I was doing scenes that involve rage with George Lutz I just didn't know what was going to happen. In one take I slapped him, not hard but hard enough that I sat back going, "Whoa, this is strange and new experience for me and are you okay?" 

Q: When I was watching the film there was women on both side of me and I have to know is there a minimum amount of time you have to take off your shirt in a film? 

RYAN: It is contractual (laughs). In the next movie it's just pant and black socks. I don't know why. It's a nice visual. I had just done Blade and I put on more weight for Blade and I thought I might as well use it so I kept it and added a little more. I wanted him to be a big bear. I wanted him to look like if thing was out of control that he could really hurt someone. I wanted him to be as intimidating as possible. As far as taking off my shirt I mean if it sells tickets that just as fine all the same. It's funny because you shoot one day with your shirt off in the movie and it seems like its thirty minutes of films worth. I don't know how it ended up that much but its one day. 

Q: Is it embarrassing that aspect of it? 

RYAN: Yeah, sure some of it is. Some of it is a little cringe worthy. I recognize certain elements of it that I choose not to speak of necessarily all the time. Sometimes you have to add that element. 

Q: It's the humble Canadian in you. 

RYAN: It's actually passive aggressive is what Canadians are. 

Q: Was it harder to put that extra bit of weight on? 

RYAN: It wasn't that hard. They kind of taught me so well with all these nutritionists and what not that New Line gave me for Blade that I kind of knew exactly the science of it all. I just ate more and lowered certain things. 

Q: Does your fiancé prefer you like that or more natural? 

RYAN: I don't think she cares either way. 

Q: Really? 

RYAN: I really do believe that. I know that is maybe naive of me to say but she really doesn't care either way. Neither of us try to project too much of that crap on each other. 

Q: Did playing a father, all be it a crazy one give you any inclinations to being a real father? 

RYAN: I'm not going to win father of the year award for this movie any time soon. Yeah, I love kids. Working with them I certainly didn't get very close to the kids because it wouldn't help my performance at all to get to love those kids. I don't know if looking at child actors is the best gauge for children (laughs). I remember a few years ago I worked with this one where the director said, "We've got to cut your hair for this scene." He looked up at the director and said, "I'll fucking sue you." (Laughs) Wow! Why put your kid in a movie? Just give him a crack pipe. Here's a lighter, there you go. It's just not a good gauge to see if you want to have kids hanging out with child actors. 

Q: What's the latest on The Flash? 

RYAN: The Flash is something David Goyer is writing right now and when he's done a draft hopefully Warner Brothers will green light it. The story he has for it is unbelievable. It's just such a mind boggling story. I'm excited so if all goes well I'll be playing it. 

Q: Anything happening with Dead Pool? 

RYAN: Fox just was interested in picking up the rights to it but Avi Arad and I had a meeting about it the other day and it's just such a hard thing to adapt because the guy is horribly scared. It's a murk with a mouth and I feel like I'd love to take a crack at that guy. It would be such a fun character to play. 

Q: Why is the Flash script so mind blowing? Is it more than just an origin? 

RYAN: There's just so much I didn't realize about the laws of physics and relativity you can get into with the Flash; the fact that he is basically doing things like arriving before he's left. To me this stuff is really interesting to capture on film. 

Q: Do you have an agreement in place that if they green light it you will get the part? 

RYAN: No, no not at all. There is nothing contractual at all. David Goyer and I both always said we would like to do it together and Warner Brothers seems to approve of that and I've been known to wear red unitards at various parties around town (laughs). So I'm in. 

Q: Since your co-star was in Alias have you ever seen Alias? 

RYAN: I've never seen Alias. I'm a bad co-star but I would love to and actually just got the DVDs. I got all of them actually. I hear it's great. People wanted her dead (laughs). 

Q: Having done two genre pictures back to back would you like to do more? 

RYAN: I liked it. I love doing other genres I just love breaking the mold a bit. I actually buys you a lot of credibility in comedy because the more you continuously stay unpredictable in your choices the more people sort of get sucked in and you can hit them over the head with some sort of dick joke or something (laughs). I love doing any kind of genre. It's just always the character. 

Q: Are you a fan of the genre? 

RYAN: Not really. I mean I don't seek out horror movies typically so it's not something, usually if it has a very linear story. I feel that at least in our movie I love that George Lutz you see this progression of this guy go from one end of spectrum to the other. I felt like movies like The Others really captured that, just this beautiful progression of these people. Yeah, I like those. I don't know if I like really gory stuff. That was never my bag too much. 

Q: What do you do to prepare to play such a dark character? 

RYAN: I look at it like everyone has these wounds they acquired in childhood and that sort of thing. Not to be too Youngian or anything on it. I just look at that stuff when I was young and the things that effected me most. The things that I sort of hung on to and don't really look too much so much I kind of did for this movie and really helped fuel the fire so to speak a little bit, stuff that you're usually covering up when you're doing movies like comedies. It was fun for me. Everybody has rage within them and their own unique set of wounds and an ability to go off the deep end. It's just a journey to sort of find that and once you do it kind of fun to explore and or exploit. 

Q: Is it a matter of technique? 

RYAN: I've never studied acting so I don't know. I mean I've studied it in the sense that when I'm doing it I feel like I'm studying but I have never formally studied it, like "Oh, I'm going to implement the Misner method here." I've never done that. That's something that doesn't work for me. 

Q: You're always so quick witted with us are you this funny all of the time? 

RYAN: Just when I'm terrified (laughs). When you're in a room with eight hundred people and the maximum capacity is four and if there's a fire someone's dying. When you look at these people and their partners I mean Alanis, there's a lot of eye rolling with me. We both play off each other in that way. You'll see like Robin Williams and his wife and he'll say something and the room is laughing and I love just watching his wife go (rolls his eyes and sighs). 

Q: Are you becoming an American citizen yourself? 

RYAN: No it's not something I've really considered. I've certainly been here for so long that I would like to at some point but it's not something I am actively pursuing right now. I want to vote but that's the only reason I want to. Alanis just got her citizenship. You gain a passport and twenty-eight million dirty looks when you go back home (laughs). 

Q: Do you both feel a duality in that sense in term of nationality? 

RYAN: Your just citizens of the world. We're all here. I believe it was Oscar Wilde who said, "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious". I do believe that patriotic tones are wonderful but I don't have any solid ones for Canada and/or America. I feel like I'm a citizen of North America. 

Q: Melissa George had an interesting insight to being an Australian in Hollywood. She said that she felt that if things ever got really screwed up here that she has a refuge back home in Australia. 

RYAN: Yeah, because they don't have Alias in Australia (laughs). 

Q: Do you feel that way too? 

RYAN: Well I think if something were to go wrong it's more or less just an exercise in actually coming to grips with taking responsibility for it at some point because chances are it's my doing. So whether I do that here or back in Canada it doesn't really make a difference to me but I could see why it would be appealing. 

Q: Did anything weird happen to you during filming? 

RYAN: Nothing weird happened to me. I know that some people on the crew experienced some stuff. I know that it was disconcerting to find out that Kathy Lutz passed away in the middle of the movie which was pretty odd and we took a moment to pause for her. They did fish a body out of the lake the first week we were there. That's awfully strange. I mean what do you say to that except some inappropriate joke. That was definitely something a little bit strange for everyone the crew included; just a weird way to start a movie. 

Q: Did it make you start believing in ghosts or anything? 

RYAN: No not necessarily. I believe in energy like dark energies. I believe that when a family moves into a house where six murders took place, there's going to be some bad juju in that house. But then again what the hell is wrong with you to be moving in that house to begin with? 

Q: Especially that the kids slept in the same beds. 

RYAN: Yes. Any good father of the year would make sure of that. The kids are right in and don't even wipe the stain up. I recognize in the movie the rational for them buying the house; I mean the house was a steal for what they were getting it for and this guy George Lutz had a lot of pressure on him to make good. He had inherited this family and had all of these kids all of a sudden and he wanted to provide for them. 

Q: He could have at least bought new beds. 

RYAN: I don't know if those were the same beds. 

Q: Yeah they were literally and physically the same beds. 

RYAN: Really? I should have read the press notes (laughs). I'm glad I'm finding that out now. 

Q: What was the most physically challenging aspect of the role? 

RYAN: Although it seems very physical it wasn't as physical as it looked. I think some of the third act like going up on the roof and some of that roof stuff was pretty hard. Any time you are working in rain and mud and all that crap is a nightmare for everyone. Shooting all night in it is a mess. The whole thing is just a mess and you just have to sort of surrender to it. 

Q: They gave you an Apocalypse Now moment though. 

RYAN: Yeah, there was a couple of them with the mud and all that stuff and my little red eyes poking out of my face. 

Q: Those were contacts correct? 

RYAN: Yes, they are actually clear dinner plates (laughs). They basically had to peal my skull back to get them in. Half of the time they weren't even in I would just rub menthol in my eyes. I'm serious actually because we couldn't get them in. We were shooting all night and they just couldn't pull my eye open enough to get the big disc in. 

Q: So you would just irritate your eyes. 

RYAN: Yeah. 

Q: So back to real life for a moment. Are you getting married soon? 

RYAN: Yeah, we got engaged, that's our idea, that's the plan. We don't know when. It's such a difficult thing to decide in terms of schedules and that sort of thing. 

Q: But it's just about scheduling? 

RYAN: Oh yes! No there's nothing to report there. 

Q: Unlike all of these other celebrity couples? 

RYAN: Exactly. 

Q: Do you feel like you are centered out because here we are asking you about it? 

RYAN: No. You get it more in front of the Hollywood Foreign Press than you do here. It's just too detailed with those guys sometimes but its fine. We don't really welcome that in as much as other couples do. I think on some level you have to welcome that in and court it a little bit to create a Bennifer or whatever. 

Q: Is it also a little better that you're in some what different industries? 

RYAN: Oh I definitely do. I think it is important for us as a couple. If we were both actors she would be in Prague shooting something while I'm in Los Angeles shooting something and it would just be a nightmare. 

Q: So we won't be seeing her in Dogma 2? 

RYAN: No, but you will see her in Just Friends. She did a role in a movie I just finished and that was fun working together. She did a little cameo.