How Ryan Reynolds' 2-Year-Old Son Kept Him From Being Ghosted by Bill Murray

Ryan Reynolds’ 2-year-old son, Olin, played a key role in getting Bill Murray to join the new John Candy documentary.

Reynolds, 48, revealed how his and Blake Lively’s youngest child convinced Murray, 74, to do the movie while speaking on a panel at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, September 4.

“I did terrible things to get Bill Murray,” Reynolds, who produced the doc, told the audience, per People. “He doesn’t use a fax machine anymore, because you don’t. So he had to find another means, there was a cellular telephone device, which he got, which you could call, and I called it.”

Reynolds claimed that he got the voicemail of a Greek shipping company when he called Murray’s phone number.

“I didn’t believe it, so I left a message, and another, and another, and another, and finally I get a call back,” he continued, admitting that he “failed a test” when Murray asked him about the “godfather of the spit take.”

Reynolds said he was “ghosted” by Murray, but he wasn’t giving up. He sent the Ghostbusters actor a video message, joking that he was “really desperate” by that point.

Reynolds told the audience that he was “running out of time” in the video message — “existentially, of course, because death will find me at some point.”

“This is when my 2-year-old son just enters from [like] a horror movie, it’s 11:30 at night, this kid should be out cold,” he added. “He says something indecipherable, f***ing 2-year-olds, and I said ‘I’m sending a video to Bill, tell Bill to do the interview,’ and he looks right at the camera and he goes, ‘Do the interview, Bill,’ and I said, ‘Say no to a kid like that, then we’ll know what kind of a monster you are,’ and then I just hung up.”

That turned out to be all the convincing Murray needed.

“He called back and said, ‘What can I do for JC?’ and he showed up big time,” Reynolds — who also shares daughters James, 10, Inez, 8, and Betty, 5, with Lively, 38 — concluded.

John Candy: I Like Me, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, details the life and career of the Canadian actor, who died of a heart attack at age 43 in 1994. It was directed by Tom Hanks’ son Colin Hanks.

As seen in the doc’s trailer, Murray got emotional as he remembered Candy, with whom he starred in the 1981 film Stripes.

“I can’t tell you what was right about John Candy, or what was wrong. But he was my friend,” Murray said. “And … I don’t wanna cry, but when you see him, when you see his face …”

In addition to Murray, the film features appearances from Macaulay Culkin, Steve Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, Mel Brooks and Tom, 69.

“When you hear the name John Candy, your face lights up,” Colin, 47, and Ryan said in a statement. “He wasn’t just a great actor; he was an even better person. People loved his everyman qualities, but they didn’t know how relatable John really was.”

The statement continued, “He went through the same struggles we all do, except now we talk about them. We are incredibly honored to have gotten to know the man better through this process and to bring the real John Candy to audiences starting with his hometown of Toronto.”

John Candy: I Like Me drops on Prime Video on Friday, October 10.