Ryan Reynolds’ Local Pizza Place Thinks He’s Ben Affleck, Hasn’t Corrected Them

We all know Ryan Reynolds, right? The quippy Canadian with a penchant for being smarmy on screen no matter the role he’s playing? He was People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive back in 2010 for goodness sake! That’s all to say that apparently he’s not as instantly recognizable as we think. Reynolds recently appeared on a podcast where he disclosed that one of his favorite pizza joints has mistaken him for another big screen superhero movie actor, Ben Affleck. Speaking on the Dear Hank & John podcast (hosted by authors/YouTubers Hank and John Green), Reynolds revealed that this has been happening for “years” and he’s never corrected them on the fact.

“They believe I’m Ben Affleck and I’ve never corrected them,” Reynolds said on Dear Hank & John, confirming it’s a pizza restaurant in New York’s East Village (H/T ET). “I feel it would not go over well if I revealed. They’re not giving me free pizza based on the fact. I do everything normal like everybody else….They’ll ask how J.Lo is, and I go ‘great’ and just get my pizza and go off.” Reynolds added later, “What I think makes it so believable is that I look so mildly put out…When I leave, I think they’re like, ‘I don’t think Ben Affleck is amused by us. I gotta be more chipper. I gotta take care of Ben.’”

It would perhaps be easy to get Ryan Reynolds and Ben Affleck confused. They both played Marvel superheroes that wear red costumes in movies (Deadpool & Daredevil), they both played DC Comics superheroes in movies that were poorly received critically (Green Lantern & Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), and they both starred in Netflix original movies with two-word titles that you forgot about (Red Notice & Triple Frontier).

Lest we forget, Ben Affleck and Ryan Reynolds have been in the same movie together only once, the 2006 action-crime-thriller Smokin’ Aces. Despite not sharing any scenes they were two parts of Joe Carnahan’s ensemble thriller which also starred Chris Pine, Common, Ray Liotta, Alicia Keys, Taraji P. Henson, Joel Edgerton, and Matthew Fox. Even though they both star in the movie it would perhaps be hard to confuse them here as Affleck wears a huge handlebar mustache and Ryan Reynolds sports a beard. Well, now that I mention it, yeah, you could confuse them.