Ryan Reynolds has apologized for holding his 2012 wedding with Blake Lively on a Boone Hall, South Carolina property that used to be a slave plantation. Speaking with Fast Company, the actor best known for playing potty-mouthed antihero Deadpool called the decision to do so a “giant f**king mistake.”
“It’s impossible to reconcile,” Reynolds said. “What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.”
Whether the actor became aware of the property’s actual history before or after he rented it is unclear. Either way, it’s taken a heavy toll on his reputation. One of the ways in which he’s tried to make up for his blunder though was by staging a second marriage, this one organized at his own home.
“Years ago we got married again at home—but shame works in weird ways,” he said. “A giant f**king mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action.”
Of course, re-staging an entire wedding isn’t much of an apology. As far as making amends goes, however, Reynolds has recently tried to show his solidarity with the black community by donating to the NAACP back in June. Around that time, numerous celebrities and entrepreneurs were donating large amounts of money to civil rights charities in response to the killing of George Floyd.
In another statement, the couple reflected on their own privilege. “We’ve never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we’re pulled over in the car,” they said. “We don’t know what it’s like to experience that life day in and day out.” They also added that they were ashamed to have been so uninformed about systemic racism in the past.
On top of educating themselves on the aforementioned matters, Ryan Reynolds has promised to become more involved in local elections as well. Although the officials who are chosen during these campaigns are not as powerful as those who work on the federal level, they can certainly make a bigger impact on the communal levels, where racism is equally as prevalent.