Ryan Reynolds says he was 12 years old when he decided it “would be a good idea, a cool thing” to get his ears pierced.
But the actor’s three older brothers, Jeffrey, Terry and Patrick, disagreed. They were certain that their father, James, would be absolutely livid.
One sibling said, “You’re doing to die. You’re going to show up at dinner tonight and there will be a messy stabbing death because Dad is going to take one of the utensils and stab you,” Reynolds recalled in a sneak peek of David Letterman’s talk show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”
Reynolds and a buddy ventured to Sears and got their ears pierced just like the British pop duo Wham! But later that night, Reynolds started to have second thoughts about his decision.
“I get to the dinner table and I remember sweat was dripping down my lap and I’m looking down and I can feel his gaze hit me,” Reynolds told Letterman. “He mutters some swear word under his breath, and I look up and I look around and I see that all three of my brothers had gotten an earring to sorta save me.”
Reynolds called it “one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
In an essay for Time magazine in 2014, Reynolds described his father as “the toughest man alive: a former cop, former boxer and full-time landmine.”
He explained that James Reynolds “worked tirelessly to provide for his family and in return, you were expected to do what he said, often before he said it.”
James Reynolds died after a long battle with Parkinson’s in 2015. Reynolds and wife Blake Lively’s eldest daughter, James, 7, is named in his memory. The couple are also parents of daughters Inez, 5, and Betty, 2.
“I was always afraid I would have boys,” Reynolds revealed during an appearance on TODAY last year. He noted it was because his brothers always ganged up on him.
“Now that I have girls, I realized I should not have been afraid. I should have wanted boys as well. They’re just as rough.”
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