Speaking to the Toronto Star in 2008 (long before “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon’s fall from grace), Ryan Reynolds didn’t seem to have any regrets about his decision. “I love [‘Buffy’] and I loved Joss Whedon … but my biggest concern was that I didn’t want to play a guy in high school,” he revealed. “I had just come out of high school and it was f****** awful.”
(On a side-note: Even though it’s not explicitly stated in the article, many online outlets have used that Toronto Sun interview to claim that Reynolds was actually offered the part of Xander Harris, the beloved character played by Nicholas Brendan. That being said, in the theoretical scenario where Reynolds was, in fact, cast as Xander, it might’ve sent him down a remarkably different path.)
In the real world, Reynolds graduated from Vancouver’s Kitsilano Secondary School in 1994, and was supposedly “tormented by bullies” in his youth. He also failed out of his high school drama class, an acting low point that his friend/colleague Hugh Jackman was quick to point out on Instagram in 2016, right before Reynolds received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
Reynolds would go on to star in “Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place” which started production in 1997. Coincidentally, fan-favorite cult actor Nathan Fillion also appeared on the ABC sitcom before playing the evil preacher Caleb on the seventh season of “Buffy.”
Funnily enough, Reynolds eventually went back to school in 2002, playing a 25-year-old college senior in “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder.” Maybe if the Buffyverse had begun during Buffy’s college years at UC Sunnydale, Reynolds might have signed on. Still, seeing how his career has blossomed, it’s hard to imagine him wishing for anything else.