Shortly before Deadpool started shooting, 20th Century Fox slashed the already modest budget. That led to a number of characters being dropped along with a key action sequence, but director Tim Miller did such a great job with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s screenplay that the negative impact from that was never really felt.
However, the writers have now revealed that the purse strings were kept so tight on Deadpool that star Ryan Reynolds ended up paying for them to be present on set out of his own pocket.
“We were on set every day. Interestingly, Ryan wanted us there, we were on the project for six years. It was really a core creative team of us, Ryan, and the director Tim Miller. Fox, interestingly, wouldn’t pay for us to be on set. Ryan Reynolds paid out of his own money, out of his own pocket.”
That’s shocking, but a telling sign of just how determined Reynolds was to ensure that the movie succeeded. Of course, you can’t blame Fox for playing it safe with what appeared to be a very risky project on the surface. No one could have predicted that Deadpool would earn upwards of $700 million worldwide, but you’d best believe that the sequel will have more money to play with.
Reynolds’ passion for the movie also led to him to shell out $10,000 for an image of Golden Girls star Bea Arthur as he knew fans would appreciate that sort of pop culture reference and nod to the Merc with the Mouth’s obsession with her in the source material. Looking back on Deadpool now, it’s clear that the love of everyone involved ultimately played a massive role in its success.