Ryan Reynolds reveals why he hasn’t been ‘chewed up and spat out’ by Hollywood

Ryan Reynolds has suggested his early struggles meant he wasn’t “completely chewed up and spat out” by Hollywood.

The 46-year-old actor has been asked what he would tell his younger self while starring in 1990s TV series ‘The Odyssey’ as he reflects on how his career in showbiz has gone since then.

He told ET Canada: “I wouldn’t tell him a thing because what was so great about all of that is that my expectations have always been, you know, almost at the floor. So, everything’s been gravy since then.

“And I think my career and my life has been sort of measured in aggregate, you know… I never had this overnight success or anything like that.

“That’s really allowed me, I think, to immerse and give me time to kind of acclimatise to everything slowly but surely.

“[It’s] probably one of the reasons I haven’t been, you know, completely chewed up and spat out in this industry early on… it was just inch by inch the whole way.”

When it comes to any advice for his younger self, Ryan joked he would let himself “figure it out”.

He quipped: “So, I wouldn’t tell that guy a damn thing, he can suck it and just figure it out on his own.”

Meanwhile, Ryan recently praised his family – which includes daughters James, eight, Inez, six, and three-year-old Betty, wife Blake Lively and their fourth child – for giving him “more strength than any man could possibly deserve”.

Speaking as he accepted the Icon prize at the People’s Choice awards, he said: “Blake and my girls, you are quite literally – you’re my heart. You’re my hope, you’re my happiness.

“I joke that my family exhausts me but in reality you give me more strength than any man could possibly deserve.”