Ryan Reynolds Says Scrooge Just 'An Active Twitter User' in 'Spirited'

In his upcoming film Spirited, Ryan Reynolds is a Scrooge, but the actor said that all it really takes to be a "Scrooge" is to be active on Twitter.

Spirited, a Christmas musical based on the original A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, stars Reynolds, Octavia Spencer, and Will Farrell as the Ghost of Christmas Present in a modern retelling.

On Monday, the trio appeared on TODAY, where they discussed working together on the makings of the film, and Reynolds took a small dig at Twitter users.

After explaining that Reynolds is a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge—a term that is used to define a typically selfish and unfriendly person with no holiday spirit—the Deadpool actor told hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, "Well, what I love about how timely this is too, is that what makes me the Scrooge in the movie is that I'm just an active Twitter user," he laughed. "That's all it needs to be."

Twitter has become more controversial as of late after it was bought and taken over by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

At the end of October, Musk finalized a $44 billion deal and moved into the Twitter headquarters before solidifying his Twitter ownership by proceeding with mass layoffs, terminating thousands of workers, including several top executives. Musk may be facing multiple lawsuits due to the mass firing, which potentially violated a California labor law.

Talks of Musk taking over Twitter worried many users, who believed that his dedication to making the social media site a place where free speech can cultivate might bring more hate speech, which Twitter previously had policies to limit.

However, following the takeover, accounts that had been suspended by Twitter for violating the guidelines had been reversed, including rapper Kanye West, who was suspended several weeks ago for posting tweets that were deemed antisemitic.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur has also angered many users with his plan to sell verification, and the symbolic, little blue check marks, for $8 a month. Musk wrote on Twitter on November 1, "Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bulls***. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month."

Many have reportedly been fleeing the app as well, taking to posting things on other websites like Tumblr, including Reynolds, who is known for being notably hilarious on both Twitter and Instagram.

On Saturday, Reynolds joined Tumblr by posting a Marvel's Deadpool gifset, writing, "Oh hello, Tumblr" underneath it. The giftset shows Deadpool saying to a character in the film, "Oh no, finish posting your Ryan Reynolds fan fiction. There you go, reblog it."

Tumblr is a microblogging platform that has regained popularity in recent years, and more and more are returning to the app following Musk's acquisition of Twitter.

Reynolds also recently shared a short promotional video with himself and Farrell for Spirited on his Twitter, writing, "I'm legally obligated to post this."

Newsweek reached out to Twitter and a representative for Reynolds for additional comment.