Why Ryan Reynolds Is 'Rethinking Stunts' After 25 Years in Action Films

Ryan Reynolds revealed he may be taking a step back from stunt work as he awaits the birth of baby number four.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the actor, 46, made the surprising announcement while discussing parenthood.

The Deadpool star has three daughters—James, 7, Inez, 6, and Betty, 3—with wife Blake Lively, 35, and is currently expecting a fourth child.

"It's a lot," Reynolds told host Jimmy Fallon, 48. "We have three beautiful girls right now and a fourth one on the way. It's really making me rethink stunts."

"I've been doing action movies for 25 years. I've broken 12 bones, I just had a seventh surgery, and you know, kids though, they beat you up...," the Canada native joked. "Oftentimes it's not an alarm clock that wakes me up, it's like a knee to the jugular."

"Yeah of course," Fallon laughed in agreement.

On a more serious note, the proud dad said: "I'm rethinking doing stunts now because I'm starting to realize, like, I wanna be able to still be active with my kids and stuff."

He added that he loves "throwing" his girls "up in the air," noting that Betty is especially easy since "she's so little."

"She loves it," Reynolds assured the audience before teasing: "The problem is I can't catch her anymore. That's the biggest issue I'm facing at the moment."

Over the years, Reynolds has appeared in numerous action movies, including Green Lantern, Blade: Trinity, 6 Underground and Red Notice.

"I've had some bad injuries doing stunts," the Free Guy star told Empire magazine in 2017. "I broke a couple of vertebrae in my neck. It was a bad situation."

"I remember the doctor sitting in the office—it was about the seventh time I had been there that year—and he writes on a prescription pad, rips off the note and it reads 'stuntman.' Point taken," he recalled. "So now I use four different guys that come with me."

Reynolds has been acting since he was a teenager. His first gig came in 1991 when he played the role of Billy Simpson in the Canadian-produced soap opera Hillside. As he's got older, the People's Choice Award winner admitted things don't heal the way they used to.

"You're not allowed to eat Advil like cereal," he told Variety earlier this year. "Things start to hurt. After I turned 35, being thrown onto cement wasn't hilarious anymore. It had been upgraded to hell."

Reynolds said that while he "really likes physicality in movies," he leaves some stunts to the professionals.

"I think it's important to do as much of it yourself as you can, but I'll step aside when there's something that's just too gnarly and there's a trained professional ready to go."

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