Key Points
Ryan Reynolds worked with Colin Hanks on a documentary about John Candy’s life.
The Canadian actor said at TIFF that he cut some things from the film, including scenes where journalists said mean things about Candy.
Reynolds said that he personally called one of the journalists before deciding to cut the footage.
While working with actor-filmmaker Colin Hanks on a documentary about the life of late comedy legend John Candy, Hollywood superstar Ryan Reynolds said he and the team discovered archival footage of several journalists saying mean things about Candy during his lifetime — and that he personally called one of them to talk about it.
Speaking Friday afternoon to a packed house during a conversation about his life and career at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, the 48-year-old Deadpool actor said that, as a producer on the new doc John Candy: I Like Me, he and director Hanks made the decision to cut some footage that featured inflammatory remarks about Candy’s body.
“There was a lot of things we left out of the documentary, journalists just saying stuff. One of them I called. I didn’t put it in the movie, but I called this journalist just to see,” Reynolds told the audience.
Courtesy of Todd Williamson
Jennifer Candy, Ryan Reynolds, Rosemary Candy, Colin Hanks and Chris Candy at TIFF
He explained, stressing that, “I wasn’t trying to shame him or teach him a lesson” about what the writer said about Candy in the past.
“[I told him] I took it out of the movie, but I’d put it in the movie if you wanted to talk about it, because maybe you have something to say about it, about your journey whenever it comes to something like that,” Reynolds continued. “We had such a thoughtful conversation about it.”
The film does, however, still include portions that cover journalists poking fun at Candy — often to his face, during interviews — about his weight, with each portion including Candy’s often witty responses to inquiries about his body.
Reynolds, a proud Canadian, later got emotional talking about Candy’s impact on his life and Canada as a country. He told the audience that premiering the movie at TIFF made him profoundly attentive to the fact that this could be “the last John Candy movie” ever, and he wanted to make sure he did the comedian’s legacy right by debuting it in Candy’s home country.
The film, which also includes interviews with Candy’s famous friends like Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Macaulay Culkin, Tom Hanks, Catherine O’Hara, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, and Spaceballs director Mel Brooks, additionally features Candy’s family as they speak about growing up alongside the star.
Courtesy of Todd Williamson
Colin Hanks and Ryan Reynolds at 2025 TIFF premiere of ‘John Candy: I Like Me’
Christopher Candy, John’s son, additionally told Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview at TIFF that he and his sister, Jennifer Candy, witnessed their father’s protective energy when it came to working with Culkin, who was 8 years old when he shot the 1989 John Hughes movie Uncle Buck with their dad.
“We had heard stories that [Culkin] had a tough situation [at home] and knew that, but I didn’t really kind of get that that’s what he was getting at [in his interview],” Christopher says, referencing Culkin’s allegations that he had a volatile behind-the-scenes relationship with his father, Kit Culkin. “And it really hits as I watch the movie now, that he really appreciated our dad kind of looking out for him, and that is a really sweet thing to see.” (EW could not reach Kit Culkin for comment.)
In the film, Culkin speaks about Candy’s “paternal” energy with him on set.
“I think he always had that really great instinct. I think he saw. Listen, even before the wave crested and the Home Alone stuff was happening, it was not hard to see how difficult my father was. It was no secret. He was already a monster,” Culkin remembers. “All of a sudden, the fame and the money came, and he became an infamous monster. He was already not a good guy. I think John was looking a little side-eyed, like, ‘Is everything alright over there? You doing good? Good day? Everything’s alright? Everything good at home? Alright.'”
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The 2025 Toronto International Film Festival runs through Sept. 14. John Candy: I Like Me debuts Oct. 10 on Amazon Prime Video.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.news.yahoo.com ’
