Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh team up for buddy comedy Mayday

Article content

“I think I wore out the VHS tape I had of it,” said Vancouver native Reynolds, about the Cruise blockbuster. “It was just so innovative. You felt like you were in those planes. I watched it probably two dozen times.”

Article content

Branagh, who was 26 at the time of Top Gun’s release and in the Royal Shakespeare Company, didn’t have the same fanboy experience as Reynolds, but he does understand how it could work its way into the psyche of a Canadian kid and even a middle aged, disillusioned KGB agent.

Article content

“Whatever you thought of the messages behind it, it was sort of screaming at a real big movie experience, which I think, even though (Nikolai) sees it on a little tape, is one of the reasons why the Nikolai character gets caught up with it,” said Branagh.

Article content

Article content

Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds in Mayday.

Article content

Article content

While the jokes are fast and furious — it’s Reynolds, after all — the film is equally action packed. And Branagh came ready to play and ready to put his theatre school stage craft training to work kicking some bad guy butt.

Article content

“At drama school, we did it all the time. It was taken very, very seriously,” said Branagh about stage fighting, adding that an exhausting four acts of delivering Shakespeare’s words usually ended with a “huge bloody fight.”

Article content

Article content

He said being able to rise to the raucous occasion of a good old-fashioned bar fight was not a surprise to him, but he admits he did enjoy surprising others with his pugilistic skills.

Article content

“I enjoyed being kind-of ready for it,” said Branagh. “I know it’s a choreography, and you have to have a great dance partner. I knew that Ryan was unbelievably skilled at this and that it would maybe give people a kick to see somebody like me do something like this. It certainly gave me a kick. I can tell you that in the literal sense as well the metaphoric sense.”

Article content

While Branagh, who became Sir Kenneth Branagh in 2012, gave Reynolds his action props, Reynolds was also quick to bow to Branagh’s skills.

Article content

“I was blown away watching him,” said Reynolds. “He’s this physical revelation … It was wild to watch this man kind of tear through these bar fights and these different things and just look so kind of at peace doing it, and then balancing it out with this character choice to just be so vulnerable and sweet. It was like the kindest man you’d ever meet on screen, yet he was this physical specimen of life-ending misery, if need be. It was wild to watch.”

Article content

Article content

The film’s Cold War setting comes at an interesting time, especially as brand America has taken a few major hits on the geopolitical scene as of late.

Article content

“I thought (what) was really beautiful, was that Nikolai holds in high esteem both the light of America and the dark,” said Reynolds. “He really understands both. And that was, I thought, an interesting choice, whereas Troy doesn’t really understand the nuance of the Soviet Union, or, you know, anything Russian really. He really just has a kind of very jingoistic sort of outlook on it, and it’s through Kenneth’s character that he’s changed a bit.”

Article content

Branagh sees the relationship between Troy and Nikolai as an example of how learning about someone else and their struggles decidedly diminishes the fear of others.

Article content

“You got to look at the individuals. You got to listen. You got to take in the detail of the human life,” said Branagh. “So something about that, I think, (speaks) loudly, regardless of the period setting.”

Article content

[email protected]

Article content