I’ve never been a big fan of Ryan Reynolds. Actually, I usually find myself mystified by the hype surrounding him – I’ve seen some of his films, and while he’s certainly got some comedic chops, I find I have problems believing him as a dramatic actor. Plus, he’s always seemed kind of surly or goofy – like those are his only two modes. But I’ve read various sources say that he’s beginning to chill out a bit, so maybe there’s hope. Plus, his marriage to Scarlett Johansson is lasting a lot longer than I thought, and they seem to be a good influence on each other. Eh.

So, anyway, Ryan’s new movie is Buried, where he pretty much spends the whole film in a coffin, buried underground with only a cell phone and a pen light. The film is getting some buzz, but… I don’t know. I’m not sure if it’s my kind of film. Anyway, Ryan made the cover of GQ to promote the film – here is the GQ slideshow and here is the full interview. These are some highlights:

NEW YORK – Ryan Reynolds is handsome, funny, charming, extremely ripped, married to one of the most desirable women on the planet, Scarlett Johansson, and likable to boot. After a string of comedies, some romantic, some mediocre, Reynolds has been busy making himself a movie star, especially with his latest role as a man who’s been buried alive. Buried is unusual to say the least, the entire film consists of footage of the buried man—Reynolds—in his coffin. GQ’s Chris Heath spends some time with Reynolds, where he opens up about his family, his career, the toll filming Buried took on him, and says that marriage is the “best part” of his life.

Ryan Reynolds on his family’s reaction to his acting career:
“My family is as far from a stage family as you could ever possibly find. Even if my father wasn’t speaking to me, he would never, ever miss a baseball game. Even if he was upset with me for a month at a time over some trivial bullsh-t, I would still see him standing in his trench coat over there at my football games in the rain. But the acting world, that whole stuff was just so foreign to him. He would never come to that stuff.”

…on forever being known as Van Wilder:
“It made me the party guy. I would walk into a bar and people would start lining up the shots. You could sum up my career at that point as a free shot at a bar. I know it affected me more than I’m revealing, because I know I went years without even saying the worlds ‘Van Wilder.’ Even now, when I say it, it’s a bit of a stretch for me.”

…on filming Buried:
Reynolds was constantly cut by contact with the unfinished wood of the coffin, and a bald patch formed on the back of his head where it rubbed against the sand on the coffin’s floor, not to mention the terrible insomnia he suffered from. “I’ll never, ever in my life complain on a set again after being on that set. Sixteen, seventeen days of doing that… It was such a state of emotional distress.”

…on how things have changed since marrying someone famous:
“Things change when you get married in general. But in terms of being a couple that’s in a public situation and speculated about and all that nonsense, it’s changed a little bit. I’m a little more guarded, I think. I’m just a little bit more wary of having my relationship turning into a soap opera. I’ve just unilaterally not addressed it. That’s kind of been the fail-safe for me.”

…on keeping his private life private:
“I think it’s embellished upon. It hasn’t been some covert operation. I mean, certainly the wedding was, but I believe anyone should have the right to have a private wedding ceremony.”

[From GQ]

He does seem chilled out, doesn’t he? A year ago, if an interviewer asked about ScarJo, Ryan seems like he would have walked out of the interview, never to be heard of again. But it’s nice that he feels confident enough to make some general comments about their marriage, and maybe seeing how his buddy Sandra Bullock’s marriage imploded has made him less… cocky? Less sanctimonious about how everything is so PRIVATE and how that makes him better than everyone else.

Photos courtesy of GQ online.