Wrexham star Paul Mullin has lifted the lid on filming with Ryan Reynolds, being yelled at by the Hollywood superstar and who made the most mistakes.
The prolific frontman was taken to SToK Racecourse during the summer transfer window of 2021. Filming had already begun by that stage on the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary, with Mullin among those having to make peace with seeing a camera shoved in their face.
The Merseyside native had no issue with that and happily took on a starring role during the shooting of advertisements to help promote the series.Mullin has said of that experience in his autobiography, ‘My Wrexham Story’: “Ryan wanted to do an advert for the show and use a couple of the lads.
The idea was he’d burst into a full changing-room and deliver a monologue about how cold it was outside and how we needed to get out of this league that plays in the winter, in so doing, showing his own (feigned) ignorance – of course every league plays through the winter. My role in this little drama is to mutter, ‘Idiot!’ Nose-to-nose he then launches into me.
‘Mullin! I will shove a red card so far up your ass people will think it’s your tongue!’ It was mad sitting there and seeing him acting in front of us, to see close up just how good he is at what he does. My problem was that, compared to him, I could only see me making a fool of myself.
READ ALSO: Sport FIFA U17 World Cup: France to face Germany in final
Sounds mad, but I do worry generally about making a show of myself.”Reynolds, along with co-chairman Rob McElhenney, got the shot they were after, with Mullin going on to say of who made the most mistakes during filming: “People often ask how many times I laughed when Ryan shoved his face into mine. Subconsciously, that wish not to mess up must have helped to stop me from cracking up:
we did a load of takes but genuinely it was only a couple of times. Otherwise we could have been there all day. Afterwards, I couldn’t resist pointing out to Ryan, ‘Mate, you f*cked up more than me!’ Although to be fair he had several dozen words to remember and I only had one.
What Ryan and his team then did with those bits of film was unbelievable. Even now, it’s one of the parts of the show that people best remember – although, again, by the time that episode came out, sitting in the changing-room with Ryan Reynolds shouting in my face was so long ago it felt almost surreal. In fact, by then being around one of the most famous Hollywood actors of modern times was an everyday normality.
Only when everyone started messaging me did I remember that, actually, being bawled out by Ryan Reynolds was a pretty weird thing to have happen in your life.”