‘Too R-rated for my PG mouth’: Kiwi teen Julian Dennison on the Deadpool 2 role custom made for him by Ryan Reynolds
HE was too young to see Deadpool in cinemas, but that didn’t stop Kiwi teen Julian Dennison winning a role in Ryan Reynolds’ sequel and washing the sweary superhero’s mouth out with soap.
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TWO years ago, Kiwi teenager Julian Dennison charmed Australia as Ricky Baker, the “bad egg” delinquent on the run with Sam Neill in Hunt For the Wilderpeople.
Taika Waititi’s heartfelt comedy went on to become the highest grossing New Zealand film of all time on both sides of the Tasman.
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But its legend didn’t stop there.
Ryan Reynolds — fresh off the unexpectedly huge success of his potty-mouthed Marvel superhero outing Deadpool — saw Wilderpeople just as he started working up ideas for a sequel.
And Dennison was just the kind of mutant he was after.
Next thing you know, this kid from Wellington was winging his way to Vancouver to join the X-Men movie universe.
Ryan says you were the only actor they ever wanted to play Russell, a mutant who shoots fire out of his hands, in Deadpool 2.
He told me that when I first met him. I was shocked, like, ‘Oh my gosh, he knows who I am!’ He told me as he was writing the script, he saw me playing Firefist and he imagined me saying the lines.
What kind of a kid is Russell?
He’s a kid just discovering his powers — going through superpower puberty. He needs anger management classes, probably; he’s angry at people and he wants to get rid of them permanently. Then this dude Deadpool comes in and messes everything up, he’s being annoying and being a prick. Then Cable comes to try and get him and that messes everything up. So then everyone’s in a big puzzle.
Is it a father-son story between Deadpool and Russell?
I guess he is like a father figure in this movie — a really bad father.
Russell tells Deadpool, ‘I wanted to be a superhero’. Is that something you’ve dreamt of too?
Oh yeah. Of course I wanted to be a superhero. I used to go and watch all the X-Men and Avengers movies with my mates. We would always look at them and go, ‘Man, this is so cool’. Doing the CGI was so cool ’cos I had to put blocks on my hands to shoot fire — I would look really stupid, though, as I was doing it, like making these sounds as I was shooting these imaginary fireballs.
Do Ricky Baker and Russell have anything in common?
Oh yeah. They’re both up themselves and they think: ‘I’m the man, I can do anything.’ It was really cool playing these two characters who are really strong and who see themselves as being a boss, you know.
What did you love about working with Ryan?
He’s just so down to earth and really caring and nice. And he’s an amazing actor, he’s super funny. Josh Brolin as well, who plays Cable, he’s actually really funny. But he can also be serious — a lot of his films he’s serious, even in The Goonies he’s serious. So I was really scared to meet him.
And he’s extra huge in this movie; he bulked up.
Yeah man, he put on a lot of muscle.
Eddie Marsan is a proper dramatic actor — how did you find doing those heavier scenes with him?
He was such a nice guy and he really is a dramatic actor, he’s really into the part. The Headmaster, he’s bald on the top — and Eddie actually shaved his head. He was that convinced of the role he shaved his head! You really do believe that he’s the creepiest character, a creepy old guy.
Having seen the reality of what actors like Ryan and Josh put into playing a superhero, are you still down to do more?
Oh yeah, I would love to do more movies with me being Firefist. I hope they don’t kill me off or something. I’d be down to do another Deadpool or an X-Force film.
You’re only 15, so unless you snuck into the cinema, chances are you weren’t allowed to watch the first Deadpool, right?
Yeah, I haven’t seen the first one fully — I’ve seen snippets of it. When I turn 16 in October, I’ll see it then.
Will your mates be allowed to go and see you in Deadpool 2?
They’ll just sneak into the cinema, obviously (laughs).
You’d have to get some cool status with your mates out of being in this, wouldn’t you?
Yeah, I’ll probably become the leader, you know, like a friend group always has that one leader? I’ll assign myself as the new leader.
When you were offered this role, was there a bit of concern from your mum at all the swear words that would be coming out of your mouth?
Yeah, we had a look at the script and we changed some stuff around that was a bit too R-rated for my PG mouth. But I reckon Mum was very understanding, because she knew I wouldn’t go home and start saying this — that’s just not the kind of person I am. I’m not the kind of person that swears a lot. And if she could see that I wasn’t comfortable with saying something she would tell the producers or the director, ‘Oh he’s not comfortable saying that, could you maybe change that?’ That’s why I love her, she understands me.
When you’re an old man looking back, what do you think Hunt For the Wilderpeople is going to mean to you?
I feel like it was that movie, like every actor owes his career to that movie, it made him. I’ll owe my career to Hunt For the Wilderpeople because it really got me out there. A breakout movie.
It’s funny that both yourself and Taika Waititi went on to do superhero movies.
Yeah, I remember when Ryan first released that I was in Deadpool, that Instagram post, Taika was like: ‘I never dreamt in a million years that this was gonna happen’. And Sam Neill posted about it as well. It was really cool that people I hadn’t seen in quite a while were really supporting me. I loved Thor: Ragnarok, Taika did a great job on that. He’s probably hanging out now in the Bahamas and it’s just a star frenzy.
Well, you’ve got famous friends, too — you’ve been hanging out with your PM Jacinda Ardern.
Yeah, amazing. Changing the world.
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