STARS OF ‘ LIFE’ FIND BROMANCE IN SPACE
A- listers bonded over awkward spacesuits and foodie escapades
Ryan Reynolds is a nightmare to work with — just ask his Life co- star Jake Gyllenhaal.
“I generally enjoy being terrified, so when I heard that Ryan was going to be involved, I knew I would be, perpetually,” jokes Gyllenhaal, 36. So much so, that when he was asked to act against a CGI alien on the sci- fi movie’s London set, the one he imagined “just looked like Ryan.”
“If Robert Goulet and a bowl of Jell- O had a baby, that’s what I was picturing,” adds Reynolds, 40. “Like rice pudding and a crazy, gelatinous alien with a dulcet singing voice.”
In reality, the A- listers became great friends working together on Life ( in theaters Friday), in which they star as astronauts on a doomed mission on the International Space Station.
David Jordan ( Gyllenhaal) and mission specialist Rory Adams ( Reynolds) are two of a team of six scientists tasked with studying a sample of Mars dirt that contains a just- discovered single- cell organism. But as the seemingly harmless creature blooms into a bloodthirsty tentacled alien dubbed “Calvin,” it starts picking off the tenacious ISS crew ( rounded out by Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dihovichnaya).
Reynolds was the first to sign on to the twisty thriller, which reunites him with Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. ( All of them are returning for the sequel, which starts shooting later this spring and hits theaters next year.) Playing an astronaut realizes a “wish- fulfillment, ‘ I’m a kid again’ ” dream, says Reynolds, who was drawn to the script’s “intelligent, thoughtful” riff on Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise.
Gyllenhaal, meanwhile, loved the international cast of characters, “who are a microcosm for the world” and “work together when crazy things happen.”
Both actors endured their shares of cuts and bruises shooting the film’s “weightless” action scenes, sometimes wearing 50- plus- pound spacesuits as they were flown through the ISS set’s narrow portals on wire rigs. Eating in clunky helmets and gloves proved problematic, too, especially when they’d try to get through a serious scene afterward with “a giant chunk of salad in my teeth,” Reynolds remembers.
“I think Jake and I wasted tens of thousands of dollars just laughing on the set,” he says. “We actually had a moment where the producers took us aside and were like, ‘ You guys have got to get it together’ and that only made things worse.”
“These guys hit it off like crazy — they’re kind of new BFFs,” Reese says. “Ryan brings out this other side of Jake that people aren’t used to seeing” that’s “more playful. It’s like watching two fourth- grade kids who know how to make each other laugh.”
The bromance didn’t flame out after filming wrapped last summer. Both actors are based in New York, where Gyllenhaal is starring in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George on Broadway through April 23. He often visits with Reynolds, his wife, actress Blake Lively, and their two daughters: James ( 2) and Ines ( 5 months).
“There is a vibrant and healthy competition between Jake and my wife,” Reynolds says. “Both of these guys have crazy, black- belt, jiujitsu- like moves in the kitchen.”
“Whenever there is a competition with Blake, I know I will always lose,” Gyllenhaal says. But “we both have a tremendous love of food, and he and she are such wonderful parents and such good friends, so it’s in my nature. I love to cook for a family like that.”
His specialty, he deadpans: “Alien sashimi.”