Kid reporters scold Ryan Reynolds for being mean to Hugh Jackman

Ryan Reynolds has a perfectly measured and thoughtful explanation for why he’s so mean to himself — meaning his younger self, as played by Walker Scobell — in his poignant new Netflix time-traveling adventure, The Adam Project.

“Some people in life, and I hope this isn’t you when you’re older,” Reynolds tells young reporters Lyla (9) and Luna (6) in our latest episode of Kid Gloves (watch above), “some people have a tough time loving themselves. And I think my character in the movie is having a tough time loving himself. And because he doesn’t really love himself, he doesn’t really love his 12-year-old self, either. So throughout the movie he has to learn to not only love himself, but love this little kid that he used to be.”

As for why he’s so mean to Hugh Jackman, aka title character of The Greatest Showman, whom he’s had a long-running “feud” with since the two appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine together, that’s when the claws came out.

“I know for a fact he’s the one who named that movie,” Reynolds complains to the girls, daughters of Yahoo Entertainment senior correspondent Kevin Polowy. “The Greatest Showman… Why not just call the movie ‘Super Awesome Hugh Jackman?’

“I think it’s pathetic and disgusting that he called the movie that. And I think it’s pathetic and disgusting that he insists people call him ‘The Greatest Showman’ everywhere he goes. Including you! Just young, impressionable kids. Goodness gracious.”

(As Reynolds says later, he would’ve called Jackman’s hit 2017 music The Mediocre Showman, or The Meh Showman.)

Reynolds, of course, is kind of a big deal himself, and has plenty of high-profile roles on his own resume, including the superhero movies Deadpool (the hard-R-rated hit the father of three gives Lyla and Luna the thumbs up to watch) and Green Lantern (the widely-chastised turkey he advises they not watch until their late-40s).

The biggest question surrounding Deadpool right now is when exactly the “Merc With a Mouth” will enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe now that Disney and Fox have synergized, which the girls asked him directly (perhaps at the instruction of their father).

And Reynolds answered, providing Kid Gloves some incredible scoop. But sadly, we’ve had to redact Reynolds’s reply in fear of retribution from Marvel chief Kevin Feige. Sorry.

The Adam Project premieres on Friday, March 11 on Netflix.

— Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by John Santo

Watch the trailer: