Ryan Reynolds Just Established Himself as The Nicest Guy in Hollywood

Ryan Reynolds has never shied away from recounting the struggles he faced to get the first Deadpool film – which went on to become a massive success– into production initially.

Knewz.com has learned that at one point, Reynolds was even ready to let go of his earnings from the project to get the comedy superhero film made.

In a recent joint interview featuring Deadpool & Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman , Reynolds recounted the story of how Deadpool came to be made after 10 years of relentless efforts and, of course, support from fans.

Reynolds, who was also one of the producers of the first Deadpool film, said in the interview that he had let go of his salary just to get the film made.

The Red Notice actor has often called the first film of the now-wildly successful franchise a "proof of concept," the development for which initially began in 2004, much before Reynolds came to play a version of the Marvel anti-hero in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine .

Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were hired in 2009 to work with Reynolds to adapt the beloved character in a more comic -accurate way—featuring his foul mouth, fourth wall breaking, and above all, his iconic costume.

Timothy Miller was hired in 2011 to direct the film and together, the team put together test footage for the would-be breakthrough project.

It was not until 2014 that the test footage was leaked online, which saw a tremendously enthusiastic response from fans, following which Fox greenlit the project.

However, Fox put the project on a rather shoestring budget of only $58 million. In contrast, the first Iron Man film had a budget of $130–140 million.

Miller was tasked with directing the film, marking his filmmaking debut.

Recounting the days in the production of Deadpool , Reynolds said in the interview, "When I finally got to make it, it had been almost 10 years at that point. No part of me was thinking when 'Deadpool' was finally greenlit that this would be a success."

"I even let go of getting paid to do the movie just to put it back on the screen," he added.

"They wouldn’t allow my co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick on set, so I took the little salary I had left and paid them to be on set with me so we could form a de facto writers room."

He went on to note that being a producer on the first Deadpool film was a lesson for him "in a couple of senses."

"I think one of the great enemies of creativity is too much time and money, and that movie had neither time nor money," Reynolds said, adding that the budget drove the writing to be more character-centric, rather than focusing on flashy VFX and action (although it features plenty of the latter).

"It really fostered focusing on character over spectacle, which is a little harder to execute in a comic-book movie. I was just so invested in every micro-detail of it and I hadn’t felt like that in a long, long time."

"I remembered wanting to feel that more — not just on 'Deadpool,' but on anything," he told The New York Times .

It is worth noting that the first Deadpool film went on to earn $782.8 million, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film at the time. The sequel, Deadpool 2 , was also a massive success, grossing higher than its predecessor ($785.8 million worldwide).