One minute, comic actor Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place), looks like the human equivalent of a Kraft cheesestick, the next, he’s a robust - he put on twenty pounds of muscle - ripped action hero. Clint Morris goes one-on-one with Reynolds, in turn finding out how one of the screens maddest, became Blade Trinity’s baddest.

I see you’ve been popping up in the BladeTrinity.com forums lately?

Yeah I try and get on and answer some questions every two weeks. Usually.

That’s great, because I mean, you don’t have to do you?

No, not at all. This movie has such a loyal following, being a genre film, that it’s a cool way to reach out and interact with them (the fans) a little bit.

You look huge in the movie. Buff! How did you get so big? Were you always an exerciser?

No, not at all. To do the role it was contingent that I look like that - like he (Hannibal King) did in the comic book. I always thought I should look acerbic. I think Hannibal is the guy that gets to represent the audience a bit, but at the same time gets to have the superhero body. I got to have that body for exactly four months!

What kind of training did you have to do?

It was mainly just weights - I did about two or three hours a day - and I had to follow a diet that would rival any science experiment.

What would you eat?

I was eating all the time - I was eating every two hours. Instead of two or three meals a day, I’d have seven or eight. And then I’d wake up after a couple of hours of sleep and we’d go again. My body’s more like Dick Van Dyke so to get like that I really had to really pack it on.

You’re eating a Tim-Tam there, I guess that means the training regime is over?

Absolutely. Gone. Over. I got up this morning and just drank a swimming pool of lard this morning.

A fun four months?

It was a fun four months. But it was also painstaking. Still, we had a really good time.

A bit more demanding than (straight to video dud that Reynolds did a while back) "Buying the Cow", then?

Yeah [Laughs]. Just a little bit, I couldn’t exactly phone this one in.

There was a bit of ‘nip and tuck’ work in there though [Laughs] [Laughs] That’s the first Buying the Cow reference I’ve ever heard. I did the Silence of the Lambs thing, yeah.

Anyway back to Blade.You looked so buff and scruffy that my wife went gaga for you - you’ve one fan there. [Laughs] I hope I didn’t cause any rift there.

Did you have to do any martial arts training for Blade?

No, we wanted Hannibal to be more like a bar-fighter - kinda like Indiana Jones - someone who can handle themselves when they’re thrown around a little bit. I didn’t want Hannibal to be a Ninja. You get enough of that with Wesley and you kinda get a bit of that with Jessica. I just wanted to be a guy that could shove your testicles up through your throat if he had to.

How many “Buffy” episodes did you have to watch in preparation?

Everyone says that, but I’m never going to say that on record. I’ll say I did get a chance to be on Buffy but I said No because I didn’t want to play a highschool guy.

How were the guns in Blade?

I hated the guns. I’d come down on Sunday morning after the nights rush and I’d look like a crack addict - profusely nervous and sweating. They make me nervous.

Did you have to do weapons training?

Yeah, a lot of it. And it was really funny too, because we had to go to this little shooting range in Vancouver, and Vancouver’s hardly the gun capital in the world. There’s this old lady shooting her little pistol - - and they’re I am hulling this 19th century twenty-pound bone jacked triple-barred rifle that’s basically like blowing grannies toupee off her head, scaring the hell out of her. So yeah, we did all that, firing ranges and that - and Jessie was doing archery.

What interested you about "Blade Trinity" though - were you a comic fan initially?

A little bit yeah. I liked The Fantastic Four, and Tomb of Dracula (which Blade appears in) was one my brother got me into a little bit. So yeah, I was aware of the characters, I was just shocked that they went with Hannibal and not Morbius or the Midnight Sons gang (two other characters in the Blade world). I always imagined like a Guy Pearce playing Hannibal though.

So did [Writer/Director] David Goyer have you in mind for the role all along?

Well, he sent the script to me but I still had to fight for it. It was also coincidentally just a good time for me. Before Blade, I never auditioned for anything - I never fought for anything. I had a bit of a transformation around a year and a half ago when I’d just finished a movie I had hated, so I decided I wanted to start doing movies that I would want to see. It sounds like a big revelation but the simple fact of the matter is, I wanna do movies that I wanna see. So anyway they sent me the script, and I thought the character embodied so many of the traits that I loved so much about Indiana Jones that I just knew I wanted to play this guy. I fought for it and I got it. I mean, they were kinda circling me anyway but I had to go in there and still convince David Goyer that I could pack on twenty-five pounds. But like any actor, you lie. ‘Can you fly an F-15 Tomcat?’,’Yeah, Yeah, I went to camp for that’. So subsequently, this movie and the two movies that I did afterwards were just two movies that I really wanted to see.

Goyer is directing a film version of the comic book character "The Flash". And I hear he wants you to play Wally West. Will you have to fight for the role the same way you did with this movie?

If that were to come to fruition it would depend on a lot of things, but one of them wouldn’t involve auditioning. Wally West is a guy that likes to have a bit of fun in his life, he’s a little bit sarcastic, a little bit acerbic, but I’d love to inject a little bit more heart into Wally. I think it’d be really cool. I mean David explained the story to me -wow, Holy Shit. His rough story for The Flash is just fucking mind-boggling. I hesitate to say its one of the best script stories I’ve heard for a long, long time. So yeah, if it were to come to fruition I’d be very excited.

You were linked to [another comic book movie] "Deadpool", for a while, weren’t you?

Well, yeah. Marvel was trying to get me to do Deadpool, but I thought it was just too much like Hannibal King. I mean, its the same character but in a mask - Dan Aykroyd could play him. I love the comic, its tragic, with such a cool character - a merc with a mouth, but I just don’t know how they’d bring it to the screen. David and I both sat there at one stage trying to figure that out. It’s really hard.

What do you think the chances of a Hannibal King "Nightstalkers" spin-off is?

I’d say it’s about fifty-fifty. My feeling is that I’d like to do something else with David Goyer, but not Nightstalkers. I’d just really like to collaborate with him again - we’ve become really good friends. Just to work with David again when be something that would be very special to me. In terms of Nighstalkers, I dunno, I feel like it could be time to hang up the fangs for these movies.

See how "The Flash" goes instead, perhaps?

Yeah. I love the comic book world; I think it’s a really great fit for me.

And your next film to come out is a remake of "The Amityville Horror".

Yep, with a fellow Aussie, Melissa George. She’s a sweetheart. Talk about a lovely woman. I mean, you don’t usually encounter actresses that are a)sane b)sweet. Jessica Biel is another one - just so sweet. But yeah that’s coming out and I actually just got an email from the producers who are very, very excited about their first cut of the film.

And what’s after that?

A movie called Just Friends, which I start shooting next week.

With Anna Faris?

Yeah. I did another movie with her this year called Waiting.

Your career seems to have taken a welcome left turn of late. Are you stoked?

For starters, none of this stuff I ever expected to be part of. My expectations were so low when I started this thing that I’d have been surprised if I’d got a series of cereal commercials. I’m just so thrilled to be a part of all this. I haven’t been let down by anything.

OK. The Wesley Question. He apparently wasn’t the easiest person to get along with on-set. What can you tell us?

It was tough. He was so into the character. But I suppose if it makes other people uncomfortable on set that would have to be more our problem than his. It’s his franchise. He’s the title character. We’re the ones that chose to be there. He’s just method, that’s how he works. We’re still pen pals though [smiles].