Ryan Reynolds is generally seen as one of the good guys in Hollywood. He's got a wicked sense of humor and a heart of gold. He and wife Blake Lively share three sweet daughters and are open in joking about the ups and downs of parenting.
Ryan and Blake have also shared a complicated past in some aspects. The two have worked toward becoming more involved in social justice in recent years. In doing so, they had not reckoned with their 2012 wedding at the Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina. At the time of their nuptials, few called the couple out on the disconnect of having a joyous occasion at a site where people had brutally lost their lives. As race became a larger discussion in society, however, their seeming hypocrisy was noted.
In a recent interview with Fast Company, Ryan finally opened up on the matter. He expressed his and Blake's profound regret at their decision. Aside from countless generous donations, the two have committed to learning and being better, as individuals and as a family.
Ryan Reynolds is opening up about a part of his past he wishes he could change. Throughout the years, people have expressed that they felt Ryan's 2012 wedding with Blake Lively at the Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina was distasteful. The site has a history of suffering and death.
In 2020, it's evident that the choice of location was an extremely bad one. Back then, however, plantation weddings were actually trendy. Boone Hall Plantation, in particular, was also where The Notebook was filmed. Ryan expressed that he and Blake are pained by their past actions.
"It's something we'll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for," Ryan told Fast Company.
"It's impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy."
"Years ago we got married again at home — but shame works in weird ways," Ryan revealed.
"A giant [expletive] mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action. It doesn't mean you won't [expletive] up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn't end."
Ryan and Blake haven't just paid lip service to their regretful choice. They've also made a number of significant donations. Last year, both Ryan and Blake donated $1 million each to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights.
When the subject of the wedding became the topic of internet discussion this spring, they also made donations. They shared the same message on their social media platforms.
"We've never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we're pulled over in the car. We don't know what it's like to experience that life day in and day out. We can't imagine feeling that kind of fear and anger."
"We're ashamed that in the past we've allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is," they continued.
"We've been teaching our children differently than the way our parents taught us. We want to educate ourselves about other people's experiences and talk to our kids about everything, all of it…especially our own complicity."
"We talk about our bias, blindness, and our own mistakes. We look back and see so many mistakes which have led us to deeply examine who we are and who we want to become. They've led us to huge avenues of education.
"We're committed to raising our kids so they never grow up feeding this insane pattern and so they'll do their best to never inflict pain on another being consciously or unconsciously. It's the least we can do to honor not just George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Eric Garner, but all the black men and women who have been killed when a camera wasn't rolling."
The couple concluded by announcing a $200,000 donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
"We stand in awe of this organization and its leader, Sherrilyn Ifill. And this is just a start. We also pledge to stay educated and vote in every local election. We want to know the positions of school board nominees, sheriffs, mayors, councilpersons. We want to know their positions on justice. But mainly, we want to use our privilege and platform to be an ally. And to play a part in easing pain for so many who feel as though this grand experiment is failing them."
The wedding industry has also made a shift away from the plantation wedding. Martha Stewart Weddings, which helped style and organize Ryan and Blake's wedding, has stopped promoting plantations as wedding venues. The Knot, Zola, Pinterest, and more have also done so after Color of Change, an organization that advocates for racial justice, approached the companies with a letter outlining the history and their objections.
