Ryan Reynolds is revisiting an embarrassing on-set mishap from the 2012 thriller Safe House, revealing that his cell phone once interrupted a pivotal, emotional take with co-star Denzel Washington.
Speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 5 while promoting his documentary John Candy: I Like Me, Reynolds described the scene as one of the film’s most dramatic moments, in which Washington’s character lies dying after being shot.
“It’s a powerful scene; he’s crying. He’s been shot, wounded, dying, admits all the stuff that he did wrong. Tears start rolling down his face,” Reynolds recalled.
“And suddenly you hear, and this is take two, by the way, because take one there was a technical problem, we hear [Frank Sinatra singing] ‘Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away.'”
The Sinatra tune happened to be Reynolds’s ringtone at the time.
As the disruption broke Washington’s concentration, the veteran actor reportedly demanded to know, “Who the f—‘s phone is that?” Rather than owning up immediately, Reynolds admitted he played dumb, standing up and looking around at the stunt men on set while echoing the same question.
“I stand up and look at all the stuntmen around me, and I go, ‘Who the f—‘s phone is that? Inexcusable!'”
He said the assistant director eventually asked if they could reshoot the scene, prompting Washington to annoyingly reply, “We’re going to have to, aren’t we?”
Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Safe Housestarred Reynolds and Washington as CIA operatives on the run from mercenaries, and grossed $208 million worldwide on an $85 million budget.
2026-09-18 00:39:00
