Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively Interview For The DVD & Blu-Ray Release Of ‘Green Lantern’

‘Green Lantern’ stars Ryan Reynolds in the title role, under the direction of Martin Campbell (Casino Royale). In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan. Alongside Ryan Reynolds, ‘Green Lantern’ stars  Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Jon Tenney, Geoffrey Rush, Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett and Michael Clarke Duncan. ‘Green Lantern’ will be available on 3D Super Play, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download from 17th October in the UK, and October 14th in the US.

As you delved into the extremely expansive mythology that the comic books have built for Green Lantern, what were the discoveries you made that helped you in developing the character? And how did you want to make this superhero different from the batch of superheroes currently on the big screen?

Ryan Reynolds: A lot of the current iterations of superheroes are a little bit darker and a little bit more serious in tone. The thing I distilled from diving into that mythology and that universe is that there’s a tone that’s a little bit different. It’s a bit of a throwback in that sense, there’s a lot of fun with the character. He’s not a character that’s overly funny, but he’s witty. I always say he’s that guy who can throw a punch, tell a joke, and kiss a girl.

There’s something really iconic and fun about that guy because anything’s possible with him. For me there wasn’t any particular narrative or storyline because we were telling an origin story in this film, it was mostly just tone, finding out who Hal Jordan was, and also distilling what it is that the fanboys love about this character and making sure that that could be found up on screen. Because if they love it, there’s a good chance that a broader audience, who’s being introduced to this character for the first time, is also going to love it. You wanna make it palatable to everyone. But at the same time you can’t forget why so many people love the character already.

Carol is a strong character, I understand Warner saw you in ‘The Town,’ however Carol’s nothing like that character. What do you think they saw in that that let you do a role like this?

Blake Lively: That’s a huge testament to Warner Bros that they saw me in ‘The Town’ and they wanted me to be the girl in a superhero franchise movie. That character in ‘The Town’ is so dark and twisted. Warner Bros don’t just make films that make money, and/or the films that gain accolades. They try to make good films across the board. They’re such an incredible studio that way, they have such integrity. The fact that they saw ‘The Town’ and wanted me for this was so so so so flattering, and spoke to their vision of what sort of movie they wanted to have. I dunno, it’s pretty strange for me to be a fighter pilot and run a business, but I loved the challenge and I had so much fun doing this. It was great to work off Ryan too because we were very much challenging each other and sparring back and forth. Having that dynamic helped make me feel like this empowered business woman because you had this strong man to combat with.

What’s your background in general with comics? You’ve played Deadpool and now Green Lantern, how many characters from the Marvel and DC Universe do you plan to knock off?

Ryan Reynolds: By 2014 I’m going to do Wonder Woman, but after that I think I’m gonna hang it up. I’m gonna hang up the lasso and the short, short shorts (laughs). Growing up I read a bit of X-Men stuff and I loved Deadpool. My brother introduced me to Deadpool, and that was a character I loved. Beyond that I didn’t know that much about comics. Those are the ones I stuck to.

Deadpool is a character I really love, I got a great opportunity to play him in more of an ancillary sense in a film, which was great, it allowed me to jump in and play him, but then not be committed to too much beyond that. I do have that Deadpool film that’s in development still, and we’ll see what happens with that, but for the most part Green Lantern’s the first real iconic superhero role that I’ve ever had the great opportunity to play, and I’m pretty damn grateful for that.

You have a fear of flying, and this film is about the struggle between fear and will. How did you use your will to overcome your fear, in terms of doing the wire work and such?

Ryan Reynolds: I was initiated earlier. The third day they basically fired me two hundred feet in the air at sixty feet per second, that got me over it right quick. Without an adult diaper or anything, I just did it, just the regular way……that kind of helped (laughs). But then after a while you’re playing on these wires, and they’re so articulate, these things. The technology for that alone is amazing now. You’re moving left and right and up and down and all that stuff, so I was actually getting, dare I say, a little cocky with it by the end. I was wondering if we could actually find some way to transport me back to my hotel each day on the wires. I loved it after a while. The best way to get over this is just to do it.

How was it going brunette for this film?

Blake Lively: It was really cool, it was important for the character, these comic books, they’re these bibals that have been around for so long, there are so many devout followers that for me to go in there and change a character because I have blonde hair would be not right (laughs). I actually had a security guard come up to me that I work with on my show, he came up to me and said, ‘For your own safety, you need to dye your hair brown!’ (Laughs) He was a huge Green Lantern fan. It was actually really cool to go brunette.

I read they were really meticulous about it, you couldn’t just go and get a L’Oreal colour…

Blake Lively: We tried 14 different shades. I flew out for three different weekends, I was still shooting ‘Gossip Girl’ so every weekend I’d fly to New Orleans and try different shades of brown. We ended up getting all the right mixture, there’s tonnes of different shades of brown in that head (laughs).