Every semester I ask my USC students the same question.
Who is the better actor — Ryan Reynolds or Cillian Murphy?
The room answers fast. Murphy, obviously. He disappeared into Robert Oppenheimer so completely that people forgot they were watching a movie. He’s transformed himself into everyone from a punk rocker to a ghost to a man slowly losing his mind. Reynolds, by contrast, just plays Ryan Reynolds. Deadpool is Ryan Reynolds in a suit. Free Guy is Ryan Reynolds with amnesia. The Aviation Gin guy is Ryan Reynolds holding a drink.
The room is confident. The room is wrong.
Here’s the reframe I offer them, and I’ll offer it to you: Reynolds doesn’t play himself. He is himself — so specifically, so completely, so consistently, that no one else can occupy that space. You always know what you’re getting. And you keep showing up anyway. Deadpool made $1.3 billion. Aviation Gin sold for $610 million. Mint Mobile sold for $1.35 billion. The man built three separate empires by being exactly one person.
