Courtesy of Carim Jalloh

On Wednesday, Feb. 26, hundreds of Yalies and New Haven community members flocked to the Schwarzman Center’s Woolsey Hall to hear from director Shawn Levy ’89 and actor Ryan Reynolds.

The conversation, moderated by film journalist Kevin McCarthy, offered a glimpse into Levy and Reynolds’s collaborative relationship and insights from their experiences in the film industry. Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds are frequent collaborators, known for joint projects, such as “Free Guy,” “The Adam Project” and “Deadpool and Wolverine.”

“These are two people so in sync with each other that they are the testament to the true idea of cinema,” McCarthy said during his introduction of Levy and Reynolds.

The line for entry stretched from the Schwarzman Center to Cross Campus. Woolsey Hall, which seats over 2,600 people, was at full capacity.

When Yale registration opened on Jan. 24, the event was completely booked within seven minutes of opening. Similarly, registration for the general public reached its limit quickly, and the event ended up having a waitlist.

“I went because I’m a big fan of Ryan Reynolds and wanted to hear from him and Shawn Levy about their work together,” wrote Carim Jalloh ’28. “I really enjoyed getting to see Ryan’s personality in real life, as well as the connection between Reynolds and Levy and how that played into their work.”

From Deadpool to Blue Shirt Guy from “Free Guy,” many audience members were dressed up as different characters that Reynolds had played. 

New Haven residents and cousins Davey Lozano and Julian Shadeck dressed up as Deadpool and Wolverine. The pair sat in the very front and received attention from Reynolds, who walked over and offered them a water bottle so they could stay hydrated in their costumes.

The talk began with a screening of the opening scene of “Deadpool and Wolverine,” which features Reynolds as Deadpool battling his enemies while dancing to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.”

McCarthy described the clip as one of the “best openings seen in film” and a scene that encapsulated Levy and Reynolds’s collaboration.

Returning to the origins of their collaborative relationship, McCarthy displayed a text conversation from 2018 in which Reynolds asked Levy to sign onto “Free Guy.”

“Emotionally, what does that text mean to you?” McCarthy asked.

According to Reynolds, “it was like a feeling.” He urged the audience to believe in themselves and go with a “feeling.”

“I had a feeling about Shawn,” Reynolds said. “We would have a creative love that would work somehow.” 

According to Levy, Hugh Jackman predicted the duo’s strong collaborative dynamic when he starred in Levy’s film “Real Steel.”

Upon their first encounter, Levy and Reynolds were instantly very comfortable with each other, Levy said.

“Maybe it was because we’re both Canadian,” Levy joked.

Reynolds noted that what stuck out to him about Levy’s films is that they all contain the theme of joy. Existing in many forms — from the “subversive” to the “totally gnarly” — joy is Levy and Reynolds’s “north star,” he said.

Levy recounted how he and Reynolds would take the Acela between Boston and New York City. During the journey, the two would pass a laptop back and forth, rewriting the scenes they planned to shoot the following week.

“When we’re making a movie, we’re not always thinking about the theme, rather the feeling,” said Levy. “Ryan and I want to put this feeling into the world because feeling matters most.”

Levy and Reynolds seek to create films that bring joy, connect audiences and evoke the feeling of togetherness that the duo experiences while collaborating.

Reynolds and Levy said that the current times are “divisive” and expressed their desire to make films that provide a “memory, escape and connected moment.”

“Films, concerts and sports are the great bastions of togetherness,” said Reynolds.

Throughout the night, audience members heard about the creative processes behind specific scenes of the three movies Reynolds and Levy collaborated on. Teamwork is essential to bringing their vision to life, they said.

“You can’t make anything great without enthusiasm. We want everyone on our crew to have their best time of their lives,” said Reynolds.

Following the moderated questions, McCarthy turned to the audience. Before anyone could raise their hand, he shared that someone had already sent in a question.

To much surprise, Hugh Jackman appeared on the screen. Jokingly, he expressed his disappointment over not receiving an invite to join the conversation. While the audience responded to Jackman’s sudden appearance, Reynolds and Levy expressed their surprise at Jackman’s mustache.

“I have lunch with him on Saturday and I would love for him to not bring that,” Reynolds joked.

Following the video, Reynolds and Levy fielded questions from the audience. One audience member asked Levy and Reynolds about how they get into their creative flow when writing their scenes.

Levy highlighted the ever-present possibility of creativity. One of the final scenes from one of his movies was inspired by an art history class he took at Yale.

“You don’t know where the next great idea is going to come from,” Levy said.

Reynold and Levy’s 2021 film “Free Guy” includes a reference to the Beinecke Library.