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00:00And I will say that in spite of the internet's best efforts,
00:03you do not know what's coming in Deadpool and Wolverine.
00:06Thank you internet.
00:08Also, I think it's great to keep me humble
00:10by hanging out with the best friend
00:12who's so much better looking than me.
00:14Hey there, I'm Sean Levy,
00:16and Esquire has asked me to explain some things.
00:18So let's dive in.
00:24Aliens invade Earth.
00:25Who do you pick to survive Deadpool or Wolverine?
00:29Man, Deadpool knows his way around those katanas,
00:33plus he's got guns,
00:34plus he's got a baby knife in his ankle sheath,
00:37and he has chest daggers.
00:39So a lot of weaponry,
00:40an incredible kind of acrobatic ability.
00:43But Wolvie, though his weaponry is simpler,
00:47claws, he's got that rage.
00:49He has that berserker rage that is an X-factor,
00:52pun intended.
00:54So I got to go with Wolvie against the aliens.
00:57There are rumored cameos in Deadpool and Wolverine.
01:00As a fan, what was your favorite cameo
01:02in a Marvel film thus far?
01:04Wow, certainly like the rest of the world,
01:07I loved seeing Tobey Maguire
01:09and Andrew Garfield in No Way Home.
01:12But I think, you know,
01:13I loved Matt Damon in Ragnarok when he first appeared.
01:18I love that.
01:19A, I just, I love me some Matt Damon
01:21ever since Good Will Hunting.
01:22That guy's just the shit.
01:24But I just found that to be so unexpected.
01:26Sean Levy tops the list
01:27to direct Marvel's next Avengers movie.
01:30Here's what I'm gonna say.
01:31And by the time people watch this,
01:32they'll probably know a little bit more.
01:34The truth is that Marvel and I,
01:36we really hit it off.
01:38And it's the kind of big hearted
01:41anthemic filmmaking that I love doing.
01:44And I love playing in this ultimate sandbox.
01:47So I suspect Marvel and I aren't done with each other.
01:50What's the secret sauce to my friendship
01:53and partnership with Ryan Reynolds?
01:54Is it a Canada thing?
01:56Um, it is partly a Canada thing.
01:58I'm from Montreal.
01:59Ryan's from Vancouver.
02:00And I do know that years ago,
02:02I was making a movie called Real Steel with Hugh Jackman.
02:05And he did say to me,
02:06if you ever meet and work with Ryan Reynolds,
02:09you guys are never gonna stop.
02:10And it's almost like,
02:12in addition to being this incredible movie star,
02:15Hugh Jackman is a prophet.
02:17Because years later, 2018, I met Ryan.
02:20We made a movie called Free Guy
02:22and instantly found this collaborative brotherhood.
02:25I do think the Canada thing is part of it
02:27because you just are kind of bred to be nice.
02:32So even though we met having had a fair bit of success
02:34in our separate lives,
02:36no one's head's getting that big
02:38because we're Canadian.
02:39We're gonna be nice.
02:40You often praise Hugh Jackman's work ethic.
02:42Explain what makes him so unique in this business.
02:45I saw Hugh's work ethic on Real Steel.
02:48I've seen it over the years
02:49with the way he trains when he has to get in shape.
02:52But on Deadpool and Wolverine, I saw next level.
02:54I saw a new side to Hugh.
02:56We would do these action scenes,
02:58these extensive elaborate fight scenes.
03:00And Hugh did pretty much all his own action,
03:03which is incredible for any actor,
03:05but especially an actor who's 55 years old.
03:08And we would do a take that everyone's like,
03:10oh, that was awesome.
03:11And I'd be like, awesome, moving on.
03:13And Hugh would come over to me and he goes,
03:15can I just see playback?
03:17And he would watch it and eight out of 10 times,
03:20he'd go, I can do better.
03:22Let's go again.
03:22Let's go again.
03:23I got better.
03:24Let's go.
03:25And he was always pushing for better.
03:27And he always knew when he had more in the tank
03:30and the movie everyone's gonna see
03:31as the result of that relentless pursuit
03:34of the best possible by Hugh.
03:37Describe your Ryan's and Hugh's personal style in one word.
03:41I would say with Ryan, it's bold, colorful, retro.
03:47Hugh is elegant, middle-aged, sexy.
03:51And mine is, well, first of all,
03:55I'm working with a body
03:57that Ryan enjoys calling Woody from Toy Story.
04:02And secondly, here's your shoulders.
04:05Here's mine.
04:06So I'm going for more of like,
04:08just give up and go with boyishness.
04:11That would be my description.
04:12Who's the biggest football expert in this squad?
04:15Ah, the infamous Jets game.
04:17Was it Chiefs-Jets?
04:18Yes.
04:19And I attended with a few friends,
04:22some of whom are recognizable.
04:25Here's the truth.
04:26Football is hands down my favorite sport.
04:30And I think in spite of his recently surging love of soccer
04:34or football, as it's called outside the US,
04:37football is a big kind of, we're fans.
04:40Hugh, Ryan and I, big fans.
04:42Though maybe now if you're showing this picture,
04:46maybe now it's Taylor Swift.
04:47She might beat us all as a football fan.
04:50What was it about Macfadyen in Succession
04:52that made you think,
04:53hey, this guy belongs in Deadpool and Wolverine?
04:56I think like the rest of planet Earth,
04:59I watched Tom on Succession
05:01and I watched the performance that Macfadyen did
05:04every episode.
05:05And you just are kind of laying back and going,
05:08okay, this guy is singular.
05:10You never know what he's gonna do next.
05:12And for Mr. Paradox,
05:13who's one of the big supporting characters in our movie,
05:16I wanted an actor who could be surprising.
05:19And Macfadyen is that.
05:20We'll finally see the fifth and final season
05:22of Stranger Things in 2025.
05:25As an executive producer and director
05:27of this legendary series,
05:28what do you think the magic is?
05:30Great question, Esquire.
05:33People talk a lot about the 80s nostalgia play.
05:36They talk a lot about the mythology and the upside down
05:39and all of that is huge and now iconic.
05:43But I think the actual magic is these characters
05:47and the warmth that we treat these characters with.
05:51It's about outcasts and outsiders
05:55who find a sense of belonging with each other
05:58and through that connection become heroes.
06:01And I think there's a wish fulfillment to that,
06:03a relatability to that.
06:05And I think that's the magic.
06:06And that's very much the magic of season five as well.
06:09Explain why you always direct episodes three and four
06:12of Stranger Things.
06:13Will you do the same in season five?
06:15In season one, I literally was not gonna direct.
06:18It was all gonna be,
06:19it was gonna be the duffers to the whole season.
06:21But by episode two, it became clear that the duffers,
06:25there was just no way they were gonna finish
06:27writing the season.
06:28So we talked, the three of us,
06:30and I basically said, you know what?
06:32You gotta go into the writing hole.
06:34I'll direct the third and fourth episode.
06:36And ever since then, we've been really superstitious.
06:39And I became like the luckiest director in the world
06:41because episode three and four tends to be
06:44where we're done with exposition
06:46and things are just going batshit crazy.
06:48So I'm lucky.
06:50But this year, I'm doing this little project
06:52called Deadpool and Wolverine.
06:53So I couldn't do episodes three and four
06:55and I'm coming in for a later slot.
06:57How does it feel to take on an epic piece
07:00of movie history with Star Wars?
07:02I remember seeing the first Star Wars in 77.
07:06I really remember seeing Return of the Jedi a lot.
07:10I went with my brother repeatedly
07:12and I was just all in by that point.
07:15And I loved all of it, even the Ewoks.
07:17People love to crap on the Ewoks.
07:19They were adorable with their little dancing
07:22and their little made up language.
07:26So I'm just, I'm a fan.
07:27And frankly, I do this job because I have enthusiasm for it.
07:32And Star Wars was some of the earliest imprinting
07:36of that enthusiasm for movies.
07:39What do you watch for when you want a laugh
07:42or to lift my spirits?
07:42What do I watch?
07:44Definitely Seinfeld reruns.
07:46That's a go-to.
07:47Weirdly, I feel like Three's Company was an early influence.
07:51It's so not a snobby answer.
07:53I know it's supposed to be like multi-Python,
07:55but no, you give me some Jack Tripper.
07:58That was early and it was so silly
08:01and it was physical humor.
08:02And to this day, it's something Ryan and I talk about a lot.
08:05And it's frankly, one of the geniuses of Deadpool.
08:07Watch for it.
08:08Yeah, the action.
08:10Yeah, the verbal wit of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool,
08:13but that's a character in a performance with no face.
08:15Think about that.
08:16Think about how many actors,
08:18since like Steve Martin or Jim Carrey,
08:21have the physical comedy to pull that off.
08:24And that's something I love.
08:25You started your career as an actor.
08:28Failed actor.
08:28Thank you very much.
08:30How do you think that helped you as a producer and director?
08:32The truth is that I'm so happy
08:35I didn't quite make it as an actor
08:37because then I wouldn't have found my actual calling.
08:40But I think about that background every day
08:42because I know what it feels like
08:45to put yourself out there on stage or on camera
08:49and to kind of have the freedom to lose yourself.
08:54And frankly, the guts to just put it out there.
08:57And so that's why it works with me and my cast.
09:00I'm headed to a deserted island with a very old DVD player
09:03and can only keep three of my movies.
09:06Which ones do you keep and why?
09:08Okay, first of all,
09:09though I know you don't need to see this slide,
09:12I'm like, wait, no wonder I'm exhausted.
09:15No wonder my face looks ravaged by time and labor.
09:20I'm gonna say Real Steel,
09:23which is so close to my heart.
09:26It was the first non-comedy I directed
09:29and it was the first time that I realized two things.
09:32One, oh, I'm gonna have so much fun
09:36doing unexpected and different tones.
09:39That was the movie that unlocked that for me.
09:42Second choice, Night at the Museum.
09:45That was the one, if Real Steel unlocked
09:48the eclecticism of my career,
09:50Night at the Museum changed my career.
09:52I was the comedy guy with Cheaper by the Dozen
09:55and Pink Panther and Big Fat Liar.
09:58And Night at the Museum was the first time
10:00I was asked to build a world,
10:02was asked to use visual effects
10:04to do a more epic scale of storytelling.
10:06And that ended up changing the course of my career.
10:09And then I guess if there's a third one,
10:12I'm gonna say Deadpool and Wolverine
10:14because it's the continuation
10:17of this brotherhood with Ryan.
10:19It was my reunion with my other brother, Hugh Jackman.
10:23And it was my entree into the superhero genre
10:26and the MCU, which allowed me to take
10:29all this experience I have making big movies
10:33and employ that knowledge in this anthemic universe
10:38that has such love around the world
10:40and has such a footprint in our culture.
10:42And that's a privilege
10:44because you work so hard on these movies,
10:45you never know if people are gonna show up.
10:48To work on a movie like Deadpool and Wolverine
10:50and to have a pretty good amount of confidence
10:52that, okay, people are coming, people are waiting.
10:56It's a lot of pressure,
10:57but it's also the biggest opportunity of my life.
11:00Wow, okay.
11:01I can't, I will never say no to a question about BFL.
11:04That's Big Fat Liar, Biffle,
11:06as it's come to be known by fans.
11:09Big Fat Liar, my first studio movie.
11:12I got to cast my buddy from college, Paul Giamatti.
11:15And this is before visual effects
11:19or frankly, before I had the budget
11:20to even have a visual effect.
11:22So we had to literally spray paint Paul Giamatti blue
11:27every day.
11:29He like wore tighty whiteys, like a speedo
11:33and would just spread eagle for that bitch.
11:36And we would just hose him down with blue paint makeup.
11:41And he was such a trooper.
11:43But as a result, Marty Wolf, forever.
11:52Well, for one thing, those were early movies for me.
11:56And so I got early on in my career,
11:59I got to learn from the maestro.
12:01One thing I learned is I remember on Pink Panther,
12:05there was a pitch for a scene.
12:07And Steve Martin said to me,
12:08this is something that stuck with me.
12:09He goes, that's a funny idea for a scene,
12:12but not for a me scene.
12:14You need to set up the comedic premise for my tone,
12:18for my style of comedy.
12:20Otherwise I can't be as funny as I can be.
12:24And that was the first time where it kind of
12:26incepted this idea of there's what's funny on the page,
12:30but if you want to make a hit comedy,
12:32you need this alignment between the type of comedy
12:37and the type of comedic star.
12:39And you got to find that Venn diagram overlap
12:42and that sweet spot, whether it's Ben Stiller
12:45or Robin Williams or Ryan Reynolds or Steve Martin,
12:49that's what you're looking for, that bullseye.
12:51And I learned that from Steve.
12:53Night at the Museum literally changed
12:54how we think about museums when the lights are off.
12:57What was your favorite moment in the film?
12:59That's easy.
13:01And by the way, I need this picture
13:03because I have not seen that in years
13:04and I'm immediately texting it
13:06to Rami Malek and Ben Stiller.
13:09Favorite moment, we're shooting the last
13:11of the museum movies and we're filming
13:13at the British Museum and it's 3 a.m.
13:16And I'm there with Ben Stiller
13:17and Robin Williams playing Teddy Roosevelt.
13:20And we're talking before a shot
13:22and we're standing there next to the Rosetta Stone
13:25in one of the great museums of the world closed for us.
13:29And Robin looks around and he says to me,
13:33hey boss, look what we get to do.
13:36Look what we get to do.
13:38And I didn't know that would end up
13:39being Robin's last movie.
13:42But I knew in that moment that I have goosebumps right now
13:46that Robin, after so many legendary years,
13:50still had an appreciation for what we get to do.
13:54That's how I feel every day.
13:56Thank you for an incredibly amusing
14:00and frankly, shockingly poignant trip down memory lane.