Behind the scenes at the ‘Green Lantern’ junket

Did you know we’re a sucker for a gimmick?

Anything that’s a conversation starter/an ice breaker/anything that’ll illicit a giggle.

That’s why when did our very first premiere back in 2007 and we had to interview Justin Timberlake, Mike Myers and Antonio Banderas for Shrek The Third we painted our face green.

And that’s also why we dressed up as Marge Simpson for The Simpsons movie (check out the look of shock on Joshua Jackson’s face here).

When we were researching Ryan Reynolds, reading endless interviews with the star and Green Lantern we stumbled across a few throwaway comments that piqued out interest.

Firstly, he said his co-star Blake Lively was extremely fond of cooking and would regularly appear on set with a selection of tasty nibbles to offer around. Whatta gal!

Secondly, he said that they way to his heart is through his stomach – and specifically if you come bearing baked goods.

Thirdly, whenever he was asked about his superhero diet and what he ate he would variously quip that he’d chow down on a) orphans b) distracted children.

So on the way to interviewing the square-jawed movie star we stopped by Peyton & Byrne (we’re not too great with baking – too much measuring involved) and picked up a cupcake for Mr Reynolds and it just so happened that they had one with green sprinkles.

Suffice to say when we walked in and presented him with the treat Reynolds was (adorably) over the moon. What we didn’t expect was for the actor to start digging into the cupcake as we sat down.

He did kindly offer us some but we didn’t really think chocolate in the teeth would be a good look on the big screen. If you haven’t seen the FTRC ep with Reynolds then click here

Here’s what we didn’t have time to shoehorn into the final edit.

The entire world that you’re expected to interact with was CGI. How did that affect your performance? Did you find it freeing or quite difficult?

RR: “At first it was difficult. It’s sort of like theatre in that you have to create this world in your mind and then express it to the audience through your eyes and that’s always a challenge particularly when you’re used to being in films where you’re interacting with real people in a tactile world.

“We shot a good chunk of the movie just in a green screen soundstage – blue for our movie because I’m green. It was tough but after a few weeks we got used to it. We also had incredible storyboard artists who would show us images of what we were supposed to be looking at.

“Mark Strong and I would be onset in the middle of a big battle or fight sequence and we’d get to see what the area we were fighting on actually looked like in which we were working.”

Can you tell us a little bit about the journey Hal Jordan take during the film?

RR: “When we meet Hal he’s a lost guy at an all time low. He’s reckless and irresponsible sorta suicidal test pilot.His dad died when he was very young and he has a few dad issues, he missed a few hugs as a kid and that’s resulted in this guy who never found his footing as an adult.

“But he’s gifted a pilot he’s not fearless, but he has a real ability to overcome fear which is why he’s chosen for this job, to be this particular sector’s green lantern so when he’s given this gift he gains humility and a real sense of purpose.”

You’re a handsome gentleman…

RR: “Why thank you…”

You’re welcome. You’re well dressed, you play strong superhero characters, tell us something that’s uncool about you.

After the jump! Find out what is uncool about Reynolds, plus more pics, what we were wearing and what was in the Green Lantern goodie bag…

RR: “I don’t know I mean what is uncool these days? Geek is chic. In fact it’s the cool people who have taken the place of the geeks and the geeks who have taken the place of the cool people so I like to never really firmly plant my foot firmly in any particular demographic, since I was a little kids I’ve pretty much been like that.

We imagine Green Lantern fans are just a touch more fanatical then your average Ryan Reynolds fan. What kind of interactions have you had with them?

RR: “I’ve had a few. I had one guy who had about 150 pictures of me as the Green Lantern and I was signing them and signing them and I realised 25 minutes into this I’m never going to leave this guy. He’s got a stack here that never ends.

“You run into people like that but for the most part they’re just excited to see this guy up on the big screen. They’ve been waiting a long time to have this moment and it’s a character that only now is the technology available to accurately put him on screen. So I understand.”

And that was the end. After we shook his hand and stood up he asked us if we’d baked the cupcake ourselves.

No, we said, we don’t bake, and also we didn’t want you to worry that we’d laced them with rohypnol.

Reynolds reply: “Well I wasn’t worried before but I am now.”

He said this while stuffing his face, we hasten to add.

Check out all the sweet stuff we got in our Green Lantern goodie bag! A t-shirt, key ring, a light up glass, a baseball cap and an inflatable ball.

We promptly put all of it on and strutted off into Soho.

As usual we had our hair done by the Powder Room gals. The lace sailor dress is vintage from Etsy. Shoes – our trusty Vivienne Westwood’s for Melissa.

Once again we wore our favourite Zoe and Morgan necklace – which is the second outing for it on the red carpet – we wore it to the Pirates premiere too!

For more pics – blow by blow stills of the whole RR encounter! – click here.

July 25th, 2011
Categories: Behind the Scenes, From The Red Carpet Extras, Interviews . Author: admin