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Free Guy isn’t even coming out until Fourth of July weekend, but the comedy’s marketing has already been [chef’s kiss] perfection. There should be an award for movie teases. Speaking of awards, since the Golden Globe Awards are tomorrow — Sunday, January 5 — and Free Guy star Jodie Comer is nominated for Killing Eve, the Free Guy team pulled a classic Ryan Reynolds move and maximized a pop culture moment for their own benefit. The Peloton actress can relate.
Ryan Reynolds posted a video on “The Craft of Free Guy,” a clever spoof of the many self-promoting awards consideration interviews currently working the web during awards season. In this case, Reynolds and Jodie Comer were talking about the dynamic between their Free Guy characters when Reynolds stopped the background music and interview to ask why “Emmy winner” had to be listed under Comer’s name every time when he got nothing?
So the “[bleep]-er” behind the keyboard started adding Ryan Reynolds’ own honors — from Best Cast Ensemble Nominee in 2009 to Sexiest Man Alive in 2010, Best Kiss Nominee in 2010, Best Young Cable Actor back in 1985 when he was 9, 2nd Grade Blue Ribbon (“that’s a participation award!”) and even Golden Globe Award Winner … for Ryan Gosling.
Yes, leave it to Ry-guy to perfectly spoof awards season with a video that is both self-deprecating and pure self-promotion.
Shawn Levy directed Free Guy and re-tweeted the video with a note that he loves his Free Guy stars. It’s definitely nothing new for Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds to post a timely self-deprecating video. It’s also not even new for him to do so connected to Free Guy. Remember the cast video with Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, and Taika Waititi? Reynolds and Waititi pretended Free Guy was the first time they worked together, going out of their way to disavow their previous team-up for Green Lantern.
Unlike that other Ryan, Ryan Reynolds is best known for his comedy and comedy is notoriously overlooked by major awards. That said, the Golden Globes do separate drama from “musical or comedy” movies, and Reynolds was nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Deadpool. You know who beat him that year? Ryan Gosling for La La Land.
In Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, a non-player character in an open world video game. According to Syfy Wire, Jodie Comer and Joe Keery play programmers who create a code that allows Guy to break free of his non-playable bonds. Taika Waititi plays Antoine, described as an unscrupulous game publisher who steals their code and sticks it in Free City.
We can probably expect Ryan Reynolds to promote the blazes out of Free Guy before its July 3, 2020 release. I wouldn’t be surprised if Reynolds tapped his best frenemy Hugh Jackman for more “feud” posts in the months ahead. Hopefully Blake Lively also gets in on the act, since she’s pretty good at promotion too, and maybe Reynolds can use his viral marketing skills to help promote her January 31 movie The Rhythm Section.