Ryan Reynolds pens love letter to Toronto ahead of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ release

Ryan Reynolds may be from Vancouver, but the “Deadpool & Wolverine” star is making no secret of his love for Toronto.

“Goddamn I miss being in Toronto. What a spot,” the movie star professed in an Instagram post Wednesday following a press stop in the city to mark the summer blockbuster’s Canadian premiere.

Reynolds, alongside Australian co-star Hugh Jackman and Montreal director Shawn Levy, have been promoting the latest film in the Deadpool franchise on a world-wide tour, which the 47-year-old actor admitted has been exhausting.

“The relentless #DeadpoolAndWolverine global tour isn’t always easy. No complaints!!! But sometimes you show up and it feels like your brain has been lobotomized by a claw hammer… you’re desperately searching for a gas pedal when all you can find are brakes and a reverse gear. I’m grateful to Toronto for putting the paddles to my chest this morning,” Reynolds wrote.

“You understand you have a job to do. The journalists your meeting have a job to do. It’s a simple but important transaction and I wanna deliver. But I didn’t step up for Toronto. Today, Toronto stepped up for me,” he continued, shouting out ETalk’s Tyrone Edwards, who hosted a special with the film’s stars that aired Wednesday evening. Reynolds also showed love to ETalk’s Lainey Lui and the Social’s Jessica Allen.

On Tuesday, during an exclusive interview with ETalk, Jackman recalled his own love affair with Toronto, reflecting on the time he arrived in the city to audition for the role of Wolverine in the 2000 box-office smash “X-Men.”

“I’m going to tell you a true story. We came in this morning. And I was driving here down that freeway. What is that freeway? (Someone in the audience shouts, ‘Gardiner’) On the left, they’ve got flowers with words. I was looking at it, and I just remembered 1999 October coming here to audition in Toronto for the character of Wolverine, 25 years ago,” Jackman said.

Beyond the stars’ love for Toronto, Reynolds, who is reprising his role as the foul-mouthed superhero for the third time in the latest installment of the franchise, explained “Deadpool & Wolverine” has two other lesser-known Canadian connections.

“We also have two Canadian-born superheroes. That’s kind of a wild thing, you know,” he said. According to Marvel, Wolverine is from Alberta, while Deadpool is from an “unrevealed location” in Canada.

During the interview, Reynolds was also asked about his friendship with Jackman, describing their relationship as “two old ladies watching the sunset.”

“The key thing with any friendship or partnership, this could be a friend or a spouse or anything, is rooting for the other person,” the actor said.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” hits theatres Friday.

ETalk, The Social, CP24 and CTV are divisions of Bell Media

With files from Bryann Aguilar