Ryan Reynolds says that he and Blake Lively “still feel sorry” and regret hosting their wedding on a former South Carolina plantation.
Reynolds, star of “Deadpool”, responded to the topic in his recent interview with Fast Company, who brought up the criticism of Reynolds that labeled him as a hypocrite. In 2018, Reynolds had Tweeted support of “Black Panther”, a blockbuster film with an entirely black cast — the kind of representation that is necessary for the superhero film industry. However, Reynolds (and Lively) hosted their wedding at Boone Hall, a former plantation; fans were rightfully outraged.
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Regarding the location, Reynolds told Fast Company that is “something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for. It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devasting tragedy.” This mistake spurred the couple to make a change, as such a mistake can “cause you to shut down or it can re-frame things and move you into action.”
Reynolds and Lively put their money where their mouth is. In June, the couple donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal and Defense Fund — last year there was a reported pair of $1 million donations from both he and Lively to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.
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Reynolds is reluctant to talk about their activism efforts “in part because he worries that white celebrities too often drown out non-white voices, even if that’s not their intention.” Reynolds is with it — celebrities should use their platforms as an amplifier of the voices heard less — not just as a megaphone for their efforts and announcements.
“Representation and diversity need to be completely immersive. Like, it needs to be embedded at the root of storytelling, and that’s in both marketing and Hollywood. When you add perspective and insight that isn’t your own, you grow. And you grow your company, too,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds’ production company and marketing agency, Maximum Effort, is fully committed to diversity and equity.