Ryan Reynolds Reflects on His Complicated Relationship with His Late Father and the Unexpected Moments When Grief Still “Hits Like a Freight Train”
Ryan Reynolds is known for his humor, quick wit, and the ability to make even the heaviest subjects easier to digest — but in a rare and deeply honest moment, the actor spoke about something that comedy can’t soften: grief. During a Q&A session tied to his new documentary John Candy: I Like Me, Reynolds opened up about the complicated emotions he still feels years after the death of his father, James Reynolds.
“The grief thing is odd,” he said quietly. “I find it hits you at weird times. When my father passed away, we had a complicated relationship… and then [grief] just hits me like a f—— freight train.” It’s a raw admission from someone who’s spent much of his life deflecting pain with humor, and it’s one that many people can relate to — the idea that grief doesn’t arrive neatly or predictably, that it comes and goes in waves.
James Reynolds passed away in 2015 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Ryan has spoken before about how their relationship wasn’t always easy. His father, a retired police officer, was a strict man — the kind of figure who commanded respect more than conversation. “He wasn’t easy on anyone,” Ryan once said. “But looking back, I can see how much he loved us. He just didn’t always know how to show it.”
It’s that complicated love that seems to linger most in his reflections. Ryan has shared in past interviews that while his father could be tough, he was also the reason he learned the value of hard work and discipline — qualities that have clearly shaped his own success. Still, the actor admits that reconciling those memories after loss is never simple. “You think you’ve made peace,” he said, “and then you hear a song, or smell something, and suddenly you’re right back there again.”
The timing of this reflection comes as Reynolds helps bring John Candy: I Like Me to life, a documentary about another comedic legend gone too soon. The project, which Reynolds co-produced, is a love letter to Candy’s humor and humanity — but also a meditation on how laughter can coexist with loss. It’s easy to see why the topic of grief came up in this context. Both Candy and Reynolds used comedy to reach people in ways words alone couldn’t, and both seemed to understand that humor often lives side by side with pain.
When Reynolds speaks about grief now, it’s not with bitterness but with a quiet acceptance that it’s part of life — something that never truly disappears. He admits that being a father himself has changed how he views his dad. “Having kids made me see him differently,” he’s said before. “You realize that parents are just people — trying, failing, loving the best way they can.”
It’s a sentiment that’s both healing and heartbreaking. Reynolds, now 48, has built a life that balances chaos and calm — between movies, family, and his philanthropic work — but his words show that loss doesn’t fade with success. It becomes something you learn to live with, something that reshapes the way you understand love.
As he put it during the Q&A, grief doesn’t always make sense, and it doesn’t need to. “It shows up when it wants to,” he said. “But I think that’s how you know it mattered.”
It’s an honest truth from one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars — a reminder that even behind the jokes and charm, Ryan Reynolds is just as human as the rest of us. And like anyone who’s ever lost someone they loved, he’s still learning to live with the echoes of that love every day.
