Ryan Reynolds details hospitalization after being hit by drunk driver
The Deadpool star recounted how he was hospitalized for four weeks during the ‘90s after being hit by a drunk driver.
“When I was 18, I left a bar and I'd had a beer,” Reynolds shared in a June 9 GQ video with Welcome to Wrexham costar Rob Mac. “I walked back and I looked at my car for a second. I thought, ‘You know what, I'm not going to drive anywhere. Even if it's four blocks home, absolutely not.’”
And though the 49-year-old made what he called a “firmly positive and wise decision,” disaster still struck.
“Instead, I turned around, started to cross the street,” he recalled, “and I was run over by a drunk driver.”
As a result of the accident, Reynolds noted he “broke every bone in my left side.”
“He hit me so hard,” he continued, “his car was not operational.”
This was not the first time the Definitely, Maybe actor—dad to kids James, 11, Inez, 9, Betty, 6, and Olin, 3, with wife Blake Lively—spoke about the harrowing experience.
“I woke up three days later,” he shared in a 2011 interview with CTV News, per New York Daily News, explaining how his late dad James Reynolds was sitting in his hospital room with a “vomit tray.”
“I guess I had been heaving in my unconscious,” he continued. “And nothing says love like painting someone with three-day-old Gin Rummies. Just soaked the man head to toe in my vomit.”
And Reynolds has not been the same since the incident. As he put it, “I’ve been a rickety, broken mess.”
Still, the Emmy winner has insisted on doing his own stunts through the years.
Frank Micelotta/FX Networks via Getty Images
“I really like physicality in movies,” Reynolds told Variety in 2022. “I think it’s important to do as much of it yourself as you can. But I’ll step aside when there’s something that’s just too gnarly and there’s a trained professional ready to go.”
And that’s because age has admittedly forced him to slightly pull back.
“You’re not allowed to eat Advil like cereal,” Reynolds quipped. “Things start to hurt. After I turned 35, being thrown onto cement wasn’t hilarious anymore. It had been upgraded to hell.”
For more stars who have recounted harrowing health scares, keep reading…
