The actor admitted he was sick of talking about his well-defined abs, which are on display so prominently in the new, big-screen adaptation of "The Green Lantern" comic-book series that they practically deserve their own billing.
"God, on a scale of one to 10 - one being, 'This is delightful' to 10 being, 'I can't stop vomiting' - probably somewhere around a nine; just dry-heaving at this point," the actor noted, with a smile.
The lanky Reynolds has certainly looked fit onscreen before, perhaps most notably in "The Proposal'"s scene where his and Sandra Bullock's characters accidentally run into each other - naked.
"There's no starvation," he said of his "Lantern" role-prep diet. "It's the opposite. It's eating, eating, eating. I don't typically eat like that. So, it's a lot about getting a little bit bigger and stronger, too. So, a lot of it's functional, too, because you just get your ass kicked like this. So, you want to get up after falling on the cement 45 times in a row."
While physical training for a movie was nothing new to Reynolds, that didn't make it any easier for "Lantern," which opens this weekend. "The goal is, no matter how you feel, you just got to get up and do it. It's three in the morning because you've got a five a.m. call," Reynolds explained. "You know, it's just part of the job. You know, 'This too shall pass. This is 10, 11 months right now. But, pretty soon, I'll be able to sit on the couch and have a beer, 10 beers. It's all the same. I'm Canadian."
Both the 34-year-old Reynolds and co-star Mark Strong (a British thespian perhaps best known for the third and sixth "Prime Suspect" films) spend much of the time in "Lantern" in green suits that are so formfitting they look sprayed on. "Unforgiving," noted Strong, 47.
"It's funny to me from where I come from, the work I've done, coming from the theater, that over the past 25 years, part of being an actor is your physical appearance, in terms of whether you're fit or whether you look good naked. That never really used to be an issue. It's a kind of recent - for the last 10 years - phenomenon for an old (guy) like me. I have to keep up with the young guys."
Added Reynolds, "When Mark signed on to the film, I knew we had something special there -- specifically because if the franchise is to continue, which everybody hopes it will, then what's going to happen is that war between Hal (Reynolds' character) and Sinestro (Strong's character). That's something that's going to be interesting."
Which means both Strong and Reynolds may be hitting the gym again.
"You know," replied Reynolds, "That is what we call 'a good problem.' In my industry, it's a very good problem."
