Ryan Reynolds is sharing new details of his experience being hit by a drunk driver when he was 18.
“When I was 18, I left a bar and I’d had a beer,” Reynolds, 49, shared in a Tuesday, June 9, GQ video, in which he built IKEA furniture with Welcome to Wrexham costar Rob Mac.
The actor recalled thinking that “even if it’s four blocks home, absolutely not” would he drive home after drinking. Despite that “firmly positive and wise decision,” the Adam Project star was still struck by a drunk driver while walking home.
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“I spent four weeks in the hospital,” Reynolds recalled.
“What? That’s the first time I’ve heard that,” Mac, 49, said with surprise.
“Oh, yeah, broke every bone in my left side,” Reynolds said. “He hit me so hard, his car was not operational.”
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Reynolds thanked the doctor at the Canadian hospital where he was treated “for putting me back together so kindly.”
Reynolds previously discussed the accident in a 2011 interview with CTV News.
“I remember my dad sitting there … [with] a vomit tray. And I guess I had been heaving in my unconscious,” Reynolds said at the time, per HuffPost.
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He “just soaked the man head to toe in my vomit,” Reynolds added in 2011.
“Since then, I’ve been a rickety, broken mess,” Reynolds joked of the lasting impacts of his serious injuries.
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Despite the injuries, Reynolds has taken on physically demanding roles, most notably in the Deadpool movies.
In 2022, he opened up about performing fewer stunts as he ages.
“I think it’s important to do as much of [the stunt work] 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,” Reynolds told Variety at the time.
The actor went on to joke, “You’re not allowed to eat Advil like cereal.”
“Things start to hurt,” Reynolds told Variety. “After I turned 35, being thrown onto cement wasn’t hilarious anymore. It had been upgraded to hell.”
Reynolds’ next movie, Mayday, opens on Sept. 4. He also plays Deadpool again in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, which is set to open on Dec. 18. New episodes of Welcome to Wrexham air Thursdays at 9 p.m. on FXX and are available to stream on Hulu.
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