High profile celebrity feuds have popped up year-after-year, from Taylor Swift and Katy Perry (who have buried the hatchet) to Wiley and Stormzy (who have not).
But one of the longest-running of the lot, Ryan Reynolds’ ‘feud’ with Hugh Jackman dates all the way back to 2008, and like anything the Deadpool star does, it’s an hilariously meta mix of political attack ads, Hugh Jackman/Ryan Reynolds face masks and acerbic social media comments.
The pair recently put the feud aside to work on an advert for Hugh Jackman’s coffee company and to raise coronavirus relief funds through the All In Challenge, which saw them raffle off a chance to have them help run a lemonade stand. Speaking on TODAY, Jackman revealed the truce was “brokered” by his wife Deborah-Lee Furness and Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively who “reached out.”
That said, he added, “[The feud] is not over…We’ve been reaching out to Blake, we talk to her, because can you imagine quarantine stuck in the house with Ryan? It must be brutal for her, so we’re reaching out.”
Speaking of the feud, Jackman said to The Daily Beast, “It’s gone back so long now… God, this is a classic sign where your feud has gone too long, where you don’t even know why or how it started!”
He added that he has had to “limit [planning retribution] to five hours a day”, saying, “I’ve found in the past that it just gets unhealthy if it’s more than five hours of obsessing over how to get Ryan Reynolds. But five hours is good and healthy and keeps me strong and ready.”Over the years, peace treaties between the celebrities have been brokered and broken many times. However it’s clear that the pair aren’t really fighting, but that doesn’t stop the feud from being any less hilarious.
Here’s a timeline of the frenemies’ greatest spars.
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Jackman talked about the (literal) X-Men origins of their feud.
The pair first met filming X-Men Origins: Wolverine, shortly after Reynolds and his ex-wife Johansson (who he divorced in 2010) had just tied the knot.
Jackman said, “I used to ream him because I was very close friends with Scarlett [Johansson], and Scarlett had just married Ryan, so when he came on set I was like, Hey, you better be on your best behaviour here, pal, because I’m watching.”
“We started ribbing each other that way, and then it all escalated with the Deadpool thing and him calling me out, and trying to manipulate me through social media to do what he wanted,” he continued.
For context – both Reynolds and Jackman were People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2010 and 2008 respectively.Reynolds also poked fun at both his and Jackman’s critically panned film X-Men Origins: Wolverine in an Australia Day trailer for Deadpool.
Dressed as his character, he said, “One tiny problem [Australia], you gave us Wolverine and for that – I can’t forgive you.”
“I’ve got no problems with Hugh, I mean, he’s a delightful guy he really is. True legend. But that movie was a career low for me, you understand.”
February 2016: Deadpool wears a Hugh Jackman mask
In the film Deadpool, when Reynolds finally reveals his new scarred face to his love interest – he first unmasks to reveal a paper cut out of Hugh Jackman’s face.
February 2016: Hugh Jackman calls security on Ryan Reynolds
Ahead of an interview Reynolds conducted with him, Jackman shared a picture of the two with their arms around one another.
He tweeted, “Seriously, Mate. You’ve got to stop following me. SECURITY!!!”