Samuel L. Jackson Calls Ryan Reynolds a “Savvy MF’er,” Gifted Him a Beehive for His Wedding

Samuel L. Jackson is giving the definitive statement on the character of Ryan Reynolds, who Jackson refers to a “Savvy MF’er.” Jackson was doing a new interview about his fifty-year career as an actor, and what the industry looks like to him now, at age seventy-four. Part of the discussion took Jackson back to his starring role opposite Ryan Reynolds in The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and its sequel, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, in 2017 and 2021, respectively. That’s when Jackson let it be known just how much he respects Reynolds: 

“There’s no other reason to do something like The Hitman’s Bodyguard other than wanting to be in that space with somebody like Ryan Reynolds, who’s just an enormous amount of fun to be with,” Jackson explained to Vulture. “I don’t think The Hitman’s Bodyguard is an A-list movie in anybody’s category. But I also know that if it’s me and Ryan and we’re having a good f*cking time, a lot of people are going to watch it and they’re going to be like, This is f*cking great. We changed the tone of that material because we did it. Ryan is a savvy motherf*cker.”

Jackson didn’t just come to respect Ryan Reynolds from working with him on the Hitman’s Bodyguard movies: he knew the actor/producer/mogul from years before when he helped celebrate his marriage to actress Scarlett Johansson (2008-2011): 

“I knew him [Ryan] from when he and Scarlett Johansson got married. My wedding gift to them was a beehive. Scarlett was always talking about nature. So I had my assistant go out and buy 10 pounds of bees and then I bought them bee suits and the whole thing. They kept bees for a while. They got honey for a couple of years while they were married. And then one day the bees abandoned the hive or they abandoned the queen or some sh*t.”

We’re not sure if we’re supposed to take some kind of metaphoric meaning from Jackson’s story about the bees and Reynolds’ marriage to Johansson, but it’s an interesting piece of celebrity trivia, nonetheless. 

Jackson and Reynolds could soon be sharing the screen again: Reynolds’ Deadpool character is about to come crashing into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine) in Deadpool 3. By the end of that adventure, there’s a real chance Deadpool will get a visit from none other than Jackson’s Nick Fury, who tends to keep track of both the assassins and interdimensional visitors to the MCU. 

Deadpool 3 is in production. Samuel L. Jackson is currently starring in Marvel’s Secret Invasion series on Disney+.