Ryan Reynolds surprised Hugh Jackman at the opening night of his one-man show t in New York City, stepping up to give a heartfelt tribute to his close friend.
Reynolds, 48, addressed the audience from his seat at Radio City Music Hall on Friday, January 24, as Jackman, 56, paused his performance during Hugh Jackman Live: From New York With Love, which premiered that evening.
The duo had dominated the box office last summer with their Marvel collaboration Deadpool & Wolverine. Reynolds, dressed in a white button-down shirt, gray pants, and white sneakers, began his address by sharing a story about Jackman’s conduct while filming the superhero feature.
“Just like here, he knew every single person’s name, even though he was making them up half the time,” the actor and businessman told the crowd, drawing laughs. “He showed a kind of courtesy and gentleness and curiosity, and he put value into every single crew member that we were working with.”
Reynolds dubbed Jackman “my gotcha for life,” while admitting, “I’m his second-best friend.”
Reynolds shared Friday that “we were supposed to finish this bit where these two security gentlemen come and they try to take the mic [from] me — it’s like a struggle, and then they tase me and I go down, and then they hog-tie me and then they put me in the Radio City music garbage dump, and then they just light it on fire.”
Nevertheless, he added, “I wanted to actually just say, I love this man, I care about this man. He is, he is genuinely the best human being I know. And I have 4 children!”
The admiration flowed both ways. “I love you, Ryan Reynolds, I love you, man,” Jackman responded, playfully noting that Reynolds was actually his fifth best friend. “Thanks for coming. And thanks for asking for a free ticket, too.”
The pair are set to collaborate again on screen — though not in a Deadpool continuation. Reynolds revealed in November that he was “spending the year writing” a fresh project for himself, Jackman and director Shawn Levy.