Ryan Reynolds has done his fair share of action films, but as the actor told HitFix in our recent interview, “To work with Denzel was something special.”
Denzel Washington as lead in “Safe House” certainly helped sell the movie to Reynolds, but the story itself was also an easy sell: writer David Guggenheim’s script was on the 2010 Black List, the definitive almanac of the best unproduced screenplays. Reynolds looked at the opportunity as a “leap of faith,” in trusting the material and the combo of characters.
That collaboration plays with the concept of good and bad, with Washington as powerful and dangerous CIA defector Tobin Frost working in the underground and Reynolds as a CIA “safe house” housekeeper Matt Weston, who’s looking for his opportunity to move up to other houses and more exciting work. Let’s just say: Matt gets some exciting work, but it challenges his own allegiance to the agency.
Washington has described Reynolds as having an “innocence” about him — Reynolds is a little wary of being “the idealistic guy in the room.”
Check out what else Reynolds has to say about the film’s direction, and even about maybe one day directing himself.
“Safe House” opens on Feb. 10.