Ryan Reynolds put these journalist on (red) notice.
The actor, 48, and Colin Hanks debuted their new documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” during opening night of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival last week.
Now, Reynolds revealed that while working the project that explored the life of late comedian John Candy, their team discovered footage of journalists saying hurtful things about the star.
The jabs and remarks came while Candy was still alive and Reynolds decided to personally call one of the journalists to discuss it.
The “Deadpool” vet and Hanks, 47, who starred as a producer, left out footage that included mean comments about Candy’s body.
“There was a lot of things we left out of the documentary, journalists just saying stuff. One of them I called,” Reynolds confessed. “I didn’t put it in the movie, but I called this journalist just to see.”
“I wasn’t trying to shame him or teach him a lesson,” he stressed. “[I told him] I took it out of the movie, but I’d put it in the movie if you wanted to talk about it, because maybe you have something to say about it, about your journey whenever it comes to something like that.”
Reynolds added, “We had such a thoughtful conversation about it.”
The film did show past interviews where journalists poked fun at Candy’s weight. It also included his witty comebacks.
Candy hailed from Canada, like Reynolds, and died at the age of 43 after suffering a heart attack.
During the premiere, the “Green Lantern” alum became emotional while talking about how this could be “the last John Candy movie” ever.
Reynolds acknowledged he wanted to honor the comic by debuting the project in his home country.
At the premiere, Reynolds posed with Candy’s children, Chris, 40, and Jennifer, 45, and his widow Rosemary, 76.
Candy’s kids also serve as co-executive producers.
“When you watch SCTV, some of those sketches look brilliant; they’re actually genius. And some are really terrible,” Reynolds reflected while speaking to the audience. “That’s what make it special. You see them experimenting and playing and really kind of enjoying the lack of perfection.”
“One of the things about John, he was a people pleaser, and he was struggling with mental health issues. Everybody deals with mental health issues. John was on the cusp of talking about it. But he was a people pleaser,” he noted.
“As a people pleaser, you don’t want to burden people with anything. And the only way to talk about mental health problems is to talk about them. You have to take a step forward and you have to talk about you.”
In the doc, Steve Martin, who starred with Candy in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” in 1987, shared that the comedian’s abilities were so impressive that it inspired John Hughes to write the 1989 movie “Uncle Buck” for Candy.
Macaulay Culkin also spoke in the documentary, touching on playing Candy’s nephew in the comedy.
“I think that’s why that’s one of my favorite performances, because I think he put a lot of himself into it,” the actor, 45, said in the doc. He added that a lot of actors “don’t know how or don’t like to work with kids” because they’re “tricky to work with,” but that “John was always really kind, and really good with” him and his on-screen sibling, actress Gaby Hoffmann.
“He showed a lot of respect. When you’re 8 years old, you don’t really get respect, whether it’s in a workplace or just from adults and grown-ups in general. You felt invited in,” Culkin expressed.
