Ryan Reynolds offered some insight on what it was like to stop and restart production on a feature film amid the COVID-19 pandemic when he announced on Instagram Oct. 30 that he’d wrapped the Netflix action film Red Notice.
“We started this film 10 months ago. We stopped in March with no idea when or if we’d go back,” he shared of the Rawson Marshall Thurber-directed film that also stars Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot. “With the help of so many whip-smart health and safety workers, Netflix found a way to get us back to work.” In doing so, Reynolds revealed that it required “300 souls living in a sequestered bubble to make this a reality. They went to work under the most intense circumstances every day. That sacrifice is not only theirs, but it also belongs to their family, friends and loved ones who haven’t seen them in months. Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear masks. And visors. And have cotton swabs shoved up their noses every day.”
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The Hollywood Reporter has learned that there’s something Reynolds did not share on Instagram that day with his 36.5 million followers, and that is how he thanked the aforementioned Atlanta-based crew. Because the bubble required an extended period of isolation, Reynolds recorded close to 400 videos for crewmembers’ families, friends and loved ones.
Contacted by THR, Reynolds confirmed the gesture of gratitude and added that for those who didn’t have family, “I made videos for their dogs,” he said. “Morale was so low because everyone was in lockdown. They couldn’t go anywhere but work or the hotel. In some cases, their families were at home less than a mile away. I can’t imagine that kind of longing.”
He admits it was an exhausting effort but “worth every second.” Once the film had wrapped and everyone was free to return home, Reynolds gifted every crewmember a bottle of his Aviation Gin for the road along with a personalized note. “Awesome group of people,” he said. “What they did was so hard.”
A version of this story first appeared in the Nov. 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
