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‘There Was a Ton of Denial’: Ryan Reynolds Opens Up About His Late Father’s Hallucinations from Parkinson's
Ryan Reynolds shared his thoughts on his relationship with his late father, who suffered from hallucinations due to Parkinson's disease. The actor opened up about how the illness created a greater distance between them.
Ryan Reynolds had a complicated relationship with his father James Chester Reynolds which grew wider after the latter’s Parkinson’s diagnosis. Speaking to PEOPLE, the Deadpool and Wolverine actor revealed that his father suffered from hallucinations and delusions which were hard for him to understand at the age of 22.
“It really destabilized my relationship with him because I didn’t really know what was happening,” he said. The actor recalled his father as someone who didn’t share his feelings or showed deeper emotions. Although he never missed Ryan’s football matches and took time out to play catch, he never had a real conversation with his kids.
“He was a boxer, a cop, a hard-ass. I can’t even recall ever really having a proper conversation with my father,” the Deadpool and Wolverine star added. Parkinson's was considered a taboo and its seriousness was never discussed among the family.
“He said the word ‘Parkinson’s’ maybe three times as far as I knew — and one of them wasn’t to me. There was a ton of denial, a ton of hiding,” the actor recalled. Due to lack of knowledge on the disease, nobody including Ryan knew better about the situation and concluded that his dad “was losing his mind.”
Something that was difficult for young Ryan to accept was his father’s struggle to differentiate between fiction and reality and losing the bedrock faith and trust he had in his point of view. “Just stuff that was such a wild departure from the man that I grew up with and knew,” he added.
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However, after putting the pieces of the story together and reflecting back on the days, the actor wished he had done things differently. “I look back at it, and I think of it more as that was my unwillingness at the time to meet him where he was,” he said.
“I could have maybe been there with him toward the end, and I wasn’t. He and I just drifted apart, and that’s something I’ll live with forever,” the Free Guy actor reflected. He continued his healing through the relationship he shares with his own kids, while incorporating certain values he learned from his dad. “ My dad had incredible integrity. He did not lie. [Now] I get to fill in those little gaps that maybe hurt me. I get to show up.”
Moreover, he’s learned to be more emotionally available and open with his kids which he found lacking in his father. Through his partnership with the educational campaign More to Parkinson’s, he’s been helping patients and caregivers by providing necessary resources for the last 15 years.
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