Ryan Reynolds has reflected on the day the world lost comedy icon John Candy.
In a new chat with PEOPLE Magazine, the actor opened up about how deeply Candy’s death affected him and how the late comedian continues to inspire his own work today.
“I was in Vancouver when I heard,” Reynolds recalled of the Uncle Buck star’s passing.
“I was shocked how young he was, even though I was a pup… I was still figuring out who I was at 43. I felt a selfish pang, weirdly. I thought, ‘I’m not gonna get any more John Candy movies. I don’t get to see him be John Candy anymore. That seems like a crime.’”
“I felt a love for him, but I didn’t know it as fully or appreciate it like I do now,” the Deadpool star admitted.
Reynolds, who produced the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me, said he still finds comfort in revisiting Candy’s work.
“I always think of comedy, or people, or love as a place as much as a person. He’s a place I can go if I need a pick-me-up or I just need to be somewhere else for a minute,” he concluded.
Reflecting on his earliest memories of Candy, Reynolds added that he used to spend “days” trying to imitate him as a kid. “I would sit in front of the TV, and we would memorize his speeches,” he shared, crediting Candy as a major influence on his career.
“*Deadpool & Wolverine*, we wrote it in the footprint of *Planes, Trains and Automobiles*,” he revealed.
