- By Max Matza
- BBC News, Seattle
source of images, Getty Images
Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds is the latest celebrity to bank on savvy investments that are a world away from his on-screen acting performances.
The Canadian actor is set to rake in more than $300m (£248m) after a telecommunications firm in the US offered to buy a smaller phone network in which he has a stake.
The co-owner of Welsh soccer team Wrexham AFC also sold a brand of gin he co-owned in 2020 for $610million.
He also always appears in movies as one of the highest paid actors in the world.
The Deadpool star is set to see a big payday after T-Mobile, the second-largest US cellphone carrier, agreed to buy a company Reynolds has invested in.
Reynolds owns 25% of budget telecommunications company Mint Mobile, which is included in the $1.35 billion deal with T-Mobile.
“We are so happy that T-Mobile beat off an aggressive last minute offer from my mother Tammy Reynolds,” he joked in a press release announcing the sale.
Detective Pikachu and Green Lantern A-lister has been actively involved in Mint’s ad campaigns through his company Maximum Effort.
Maximum Effort has also created advertisements for Peloton, as well as its gin brand, Aviation American Gin, which it sold to spirits giant Diageo in 2020.
In a recent interview for The Wall Street Journal, he called the company’s work “fastvertising” – aimed at creating short viral ads.
“Everything we do is messy. It’s fast, it’s inexpensive, character over spectacle,” he said.
Watch: King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla met Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on the Wrexham pitch
Reynolds began his acting career in the 1990s and starred in films like Deadpool 2, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, The Adam Project and Free Guy.
He was the second highest-paid actor in the world in 2020, according to Forbes, regularly earning more than $20 million per film, behind Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
In a 2018 interview on the daytime chat show Live with Kelly and Michael, he recalled his first acting gig in 1991 as a teenager with a side job delivering newspapers.
He said the role paid $150.
“For me, I thought I was like a billionaire,” Reynolds said. “For $150 a day, it was like a dream come true.”
In 2021, he bought Wrexham United AFC along with Rob McElhenney, the co-creator of long-running cult comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in a deal worth $2.5 million.
The pair then created a documentary series about the team called Welcome to Wrexham.
In recent years, rumors have swirled that he may be looking to buy the Ottawa Senators hockey team.
Reynolds is one of many celebrities investing in non-acting projects.
Ashton Kutcher is famous for owning a venture capital firm with stakes in Uber, Skype, and Airbnb. Both Snoop Dogg and Jared Leto are Reddit investors, to name a few examples.
Despite his fortune, Reynolds continues to act. He is set to star in Deadpool 3 alongside actor Hugh Jackman as Wolverine next year.