Ryan Reynolds Shouted Out His B.C. High School & Offered All The Grads A Gift
It's not every day that high school students get a special video message from a celebrity because they're graduating. Ryan Reynolds' Kitsilano Secondary School shoutout included jokes and words of wisdom. Plus, he offered a gift for the grads!
On May 1, the Canadian icon posted a video on YouTube with a special message for the Kitsilano Secondary School Class of 2020.
"I'm a former student of Kitsilano," he said. "I'm an actor, I'm a writer, a producer - who fucking cares?"
Reynolds started off with a personal anecdote about a friend of his from high school who is now teaching at that same school.
He also poked fun at the teacher's frosted tips and his perpetual short wearing even if it was -20 C during their teenage years.
For the grads, Reynolds dropped a "chestnut of wisdom", practicing compassion a little bit every day for themselves or for others.
"Empathy has got me so much more, so much farther in not only my life but in my career," he said.
Since Reynolds misses Nat's Pizzeria, which is just down the street from the high school, he's gifting each of the grads one large pizza on him.
"I know that as soon as you saw me you were expecting dick jokes," Reynolds said in the video. "I'm gonna save those though for your university commencement speech where you'll need them."
However, he noted that the grads don't actually have to go to university.
"God knows I didn't," he said.
Reynolds went to the Kitsilano for his last two years after being "invited" to leave another school in Vancouver at the end of grade 10.
Though he said he realizes now that it was just "a very Canadian way of kicking me out."
Reynolds has been showing a lot of love for Canada recently whether it be for the graduating class of his high school or for victims of the Nova Scotia shooting.
He's donated money to the Distress Centre of Ottawa and Region, an Edmonton food bank and the family of a victim of the Nova Scotia shooting.
Reynolds has also teamed up with Conquer COVID-19, an organization that gets PPE to healthcare workers in Canada.