Veteran actor Denzel Washington takes punches like a pro, Ryan Reynolds revealed.
The Canadian actor, 45, accidentally gifted Washington, 67, two nasty black eyes during the filming of their 2012 action flick, “Safe House.”
Reynolds opened up about what went down a decade ago in a sit-down chat with David Letterman for the Netflix series, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman.”
The “Proposal” star and the Oscar winner were shooting a car fight sequence in Cape Town, South Africa, when the incident occurred.
He explained to Letterman, 75, that it was just the second day of shooting when the actors were fighting “in an out of control car” where he was supposed to “smash” Washington in “the face.”
“There’s a scene in the movie where he crawls through the trunk in the back and he grabs me and chokes me. We were really driving a car at top speed,” Reynolds said, recalling that stunt drivers were not being used to perform the scenes.
He added, “He and I are in this out-of-control car and my corner of my head — I felt it hit his eye so hard I was sure that it split wide open.”
The “Deadpool” actor feared for his life and jokingly assumed he would be fired and even killed for causing pain to the “Tragedy of Macbeth” actor.
Reynolds noted, “I’m thinking I’m going to be sent home via crematorium, like, this is it, not only my career but my actual pulse will cease.”
But Washington was a class act about it and politely told Reynolds he was OK. “He was fine, he was like, ‘Hey, accidents happen. Let’s do it again and we’ll shoot it from the other side so we can keep shooting so you don’t see this,'” the Aviation Gin stakeholder said.
Everything on set seemed fine and dandy following the mishap, but the second take proved to be just as hard — and Reynolds socked Washington in the other eyeball.
“We did it again, and I got the other eye, Dave,” Reynolds told the late-night host. “For a minute, he looked like a Christmas ornament.”
“Safe House” told the tale of Matt Weston (Reynolds), a low-level CIA officer residing in Cape Town where he is guarding a safe as the CIA is questioning veteran operative Tobin Frost (Washington). The two men go on the run after mercenaries are hired to eliminate them.