Ryan Reynolds says a decision not to drive after drinking as a teenager still ended with him spending four weeks in the hospital.
The Deadpool actor recalled the crash during a new GQ video with Rob McElhenney, his friend, business partner, and fellow Wrexham AFC co-owner. Reynolds said he was 18 in Vancouver when he left a bar after having a beer, looked at his car, and decided to walk home instead.
“I got run over by a drunk driver after making a firmly positive and wise decision for a young, 18-year-old male,” Reynolds said, according to E! News.
Reynolds said the collision left him hospitalized for four weeks and broke bones on the left side of his body. McElhenney appeared surprised by the story, saying in the video that it was the first time he had heard it.
Reynolds Told the Story During a GQ Video With Rob McElhenney
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The memory surfaced during a lighter GQ segment in which Reynolds and McElhenney tried to assemble IKEA furniture while answering questions. The two moved through jokes and Wrexham talk before Reynolds brought up the crash from his teenage years.
Reynolds said the drunk driver hit him hard enough that the car involved “didn’t work after that,” according to Entertainment Weekly. He also thanked “Dr. Meek at the General Hospital” for putting him back together and joked about recovering under Canada’s health-care system.
McElhenney’s reaction added a small surprise to the exchange. The two have built a public friendship through Wrexham AFC and Welcome to Wrexham, but McElhenney said he had not heard that story from Reynolds before.
He Had Described the Crash Before
Reynolds has mentioned the incident in earlier interviews. Entertainment Weekly noted that he discussed the crash in 2019, when he said he had chosen to leave his car behind after drinking and walk home instead.
The new GQ video put the story in front of a broader audience because Reynolds told it directly beside McElhenney. At the time of the crash, Reynolds had already appeared in Canadian television projects including Hillside, also known as Fifteen, and The Odyssey, but his biggest film and television roles were still years away.
The Video Arrived During Another Wrexham Moment
Reynolds and McElhenney bought Wrexham AFC in 2021, and the club’s rise has become part of their shared public story through FX’s Welcome to Wrexham. The GQ video leaned into that friendship, with the two actors answering questions while struggling through the furniture challenge.
The pair have also crossed into each other’s film work. Reynolds previously said McElhenney filmed a cameo for Deadpool & Wolverine, though the scene was cut from the final movie.