Ryan Reynolds Reveals Why Late John Candy Still Inspires Him Decades After His Death
Ryan Reynolds never got the chance to meet John Candy, but he has spent much of his life feeling connected to him. The 48-year-old actor and producer says he has always admired the late comedy legend not just for his talent, but for his heart.
“I see a lot of elements in my own life when I look at John,” Ryan told PEOPLE recently. “Beyond the obvious ones, he’s Canadian, and he owned a sports team, he [also] had this sort of tendency to act like he was running out of time. Unfortunately, in John’s case, he was.”
John died in 1994 at just 43 years old while filming in Mexico, leaving behind a legacy that still makes people laugh and cry three decades later. Now, Reynolds is honoring him through John Candy: I Like Me, a new documentary he produced that is available on Prime Video.
The film revisits John’s life and career through the voices of those who knew him best: his family, friends, and co-stars like Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and Martin Short. Ryan also brought together a remarkable lineup of admirers including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Macaulay Culkin and Conan O’Brien to celebrate the man behind the laughter.
“I can’t say how he was in real life, but hearing people share their stories of their time with John, there’s always one common denominator there: he was a good person when nobody was watching,” Reynolds says. “These days, that’s more of a fleeting resource than we realize.”
Ryan’s admiration for John started long before fame. As a kid growing up in Vancouver, he spent hours glued to the TV, mimicking John’s characters. “I would sit in front of the TV, and memorize his speeches,” he recalls. “Deadpool & Wolverine — we actually wrote that movie in the footprint of Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”
That connection made John’s death hit even harder. “I was in Vancouver when I heard,” Ryan remembers. “I was shocked how young he was, even though I was a pup… I thought, ‘I’m not gonna get any more John Candy movies. I don’t get to see him be John Candy anymore.’ That seems like a crime.”
Over time, that sense of loss evolved into something more profound. “I felt a love for him, but I didn’t know it as fully or appreciate it like I do now. I always think of comedy, or people, or love as a place as much as a person. He’s a place I can go if I need a pick-me-up or just need to be somewhere else for a minute,” Ryan shared.
He went on to say that what made John truly special was not just his comedic genius but his humanity. “There was something about John where he played off of his own vulnerability and real-life insecurities,” he says. “But he was self-effacing, not self-loathing. What came across onscreen is a good-natured humor about himself, which I think is a very Canadian trait. He was vulnerable and sensitive, and he felt everything — at least from the people that I’ve been lucky enough to talk to.”
Through making the documentary, Reynolds says he gained a deeper connection to John. “I never take it for granted that this little documentary gave me a pathway of communication with [him]. And really intimate discussions about something that we can all agree on: John Candy was a beautiful man that we all desperately miss in different ways,” he stated.
