Ryan Reynolds has harnessed the social media power of Gerard Butler's negative Free Guy comments for good in a recent Instagram post. Reynolds, who also stars in the Deadpool franchise, has long been a master social media craftsman. The star has incited many viral moments to promote his films, including a Betty White review giving Deadpool "four Golden Girls," a parody of the viral Peloton commercial promoting his vodka brand, and a recent video with Will Ferrell taking the viral "Grace Kelly" trend and adding some comic mayhem.
Ryan Reynolds now has a new viral moment to turn his sights on. In a recent interview, Gerard Butler was asked about Free Guy in comparison with Butler's own film Gamer, which came out in 2009 and has a similar premise. Butler said he didn't even know what Free Guy was, and when he learned about it he said "I don’t watch Ryan Reynolds movies." Understandably, these comments garnered quite a bit of social media attention.
On his Instagram, Ryan Reynolds has taken that negative attention and harnessed it for good. He shared a screenshot from his Twitter, where People's article about the Gerard Butler comments appears right above Reynolds' own tweet about how he and his wife Blake Lively are matching donations to the ACLU up to $1 million until October 8. In his caption, Reynolds stirs up some drama about Butler's quote before immediately diverting to the fundraiser, making it clear that the ACLU is what's important, but that he needed a hook to get people's attention. Check out the post below:
While Free Guy does share similarities with Gamer, it takes the premise one step further. Instead of Gamer's premise, which is an Avatar-style approach where a player can control the bodies of criminals on death row, Free Guy explores the concept of a non-playable character in a Grand Theft Auto-style game suddenly gaining sentience and realizing he's in a game. The film also stars Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Keery, and Utkarsh Ambudkar.
Free Guy's box office success proves that it doesn't need any more promotion to get ahead. This was a smart move on Reynolds' part, because fans already expect him to have a cheeky remark for every star that even glances at one of his tweets. Instead of using this moment to throw one more unnecessary match on the roaring bonfire of Free Guy's publicity, he is amplifying a way people can actually make a difference in the world in addition to having fun with Butler's comments.
Source: Ryan Reynolds