10 Off-Screen Moments That Change How You See Movies Forever

6. The Amityville Horror - Ryan Reynolds Embraced Insomnia

Pretty Woman
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Who doesn't love Ryan Reynolds, right? Charismatic, funny, entertaining, annoyingly handsome and someone who seems like just a genuinely good dude, Reynolds is one of the movie business' rare names who nobody has a bad word to say about them.

Sure, Ryan may now be the co-chairman of your scribe's beloved football club, but that's got nothing to do with it. Honest.

Anyways, despite his nice guy demeanour, Reynolds used some mightily worrying methods to get prepared for his role as George Lutz in 2005's remake of The Amityville Horror.

One prime example of this, is that the future Deadpool star stayed up all night in order to capture the insomnia and loosening grip on reality that Lutz was going through. After one such all-nighter, Reynolds was filming a scene with Jesse James, who played George's stepson Michael Lutz.

This was the scene where an intense George has young Michael hold pieces of wood while he frantically chops through them with a whopping axe. So 'in the zone' was Reynolds after his insomnia-embracing ways, he went off script and slapped the boy - a move which Ryan has later admitted disturbed him once he realised what had happened.

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Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...

Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.