Earlier this week, I attended the Turbo 500 Event at the Today Show as guests of 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation. After the show, several blogging colleagues and I sat down with Ryan Reynolds (the voice actor for the title character in the TURBO movie) for a short interview. I had 5 questions based on the TURBO storyline and fortunately, he answered all five over the course of the group interview…
1. What was your big dream growing up?
Growing up…”one day I was going to be a professional baseball player. The next day I was going to be a scientist. Once I hit about 12 or so, I really wanted to be in this business.”
2. Have you ever felt like an outcast or that others didn’t believe in your dream?
“I had those naysayers. I had those people that say, “Don’t do this. You’re never going to make it. You’re a fool. You should be going this direction….And the worst offender is ourselves. We tell ourselves we can’t do it. We’re not good enough. We’re not smart enough or good looking enough.”
Ryan then shared advice regarding how to overcome negativity.
“You really have to usurp those thoughts and just kind of push forward and see what you can do. And for me it was just moving down to L.A. That was the scariest thing, moving from Vancouver to L.A., and taking part in that system.”
However, the thing that he said that I found the most interesting was the following:
“My expectations were always very minimal for myself. I managed to thwart as much letdown as possible and that’s always served me really well, just keeping my expectations kind of reasonable.”
3. Do you have any brothers? If so, do you get along with them?
“I have a very close relationship with my brothers. I have three older brothers, and every one of them, I love desperately…As we’ve grown older our hangouts have resulted in less messy stabbing deaths and more sharing of ideas, opinions and information. So, we’re real close now, and I love them.”
4. Are you a racing enthusiast?
“I’m a little more of the slow and steady wins the race mentality. I’ll drive in my car around. It’s sort of the stereotypes get a little bit flipped. I’ll sit in my car, and my wife would be, like, “Can you speed it up? Are you kidding me? We’re actually going backwards. If you got any slower, we would be going backwards.”
He does like motorcycles though…
“I have 17 years of motorcycling under my belt. I love motorcycles. I love fixing them. I love racing them. I love riding them.”
5. Do you have a group of friends who push you to be your best?
“Yes, I think you have to. Everybody has to. Sometimes it’s yourself. I (also) have a very close relationship with my brothers.”
In any event, I found Ryan Reynolds to be both friendly and funny. As a mom of two sons, I was especially touched to learn about his brotherly bonds. His advice to me: Teach them how to patch and drywall” (for all of the holes that they will put in my walls)! He really seemed like a great, family-oriented guy.
Anyway, my family met up with me to see an advanced screening of TURBO after the interview. It was a really cute film with a sweet message about following your dreams. TURBO will be in theaters (in 3D) on July 17th. It’s one of our top 7 Summer Movies for Kids 2013, so be sure to check it out. Meanwhile, you can take a small peek below:
