Hugh Jackman urges Academy not to ‘validate Ryan Reynolds’ with Oscar nomination for Spirited

Hugh Jackman is unable to face the prospect of an Oscar-nominated Ryan Reynolds.

Jackman gave the latest instalment in the pair’s long-running joke feud on Wednesday (4 January) with a video plea begging the Academy Awards not to nominate Reynolds for his song “Good Afternoon” taken from his 2022 Christmas movie, Spirited.

The Academy recently included “Good Afternoon” on its shortlist of 15 original songs eligible for nominations for the Oscars’ Best Music (Original Song) award ahead of this year’s March ceremony.

Jackman kicked off the piece, saying: “Hey everybody, it’s 2023 and I really really wanted to send out a positive message at the beginning of the year, but recent events have made that impossible.

“Don’t get me wrong, I loved Spirited. It’s a great movie... I love Will [Ferrell], I love Octavia [Spencer] ... the song ‘Good Afternoon’, I laughed the entire way through, it is absolutely brilliant,” he continued. “However, I just heard the Academy have short-listed ‘Good Afternoon’ [for the 2023 Oscars].

“Now, Ryan Reynolds getting a nomination in the Best Song category would make the next year of my life insufferable. I have to spend a year with him shooting Wolverine and Deadpool,” Jackman adds, referencing the upcoming Deadpool 3 film. “Trust me, it would be impossible. It would be a problem.”

“So, just to recap, love Spirited, love Will, love Octavia, love the song ‘Good Afternoon,’ love Benj and Justin,” Jackman concluded. “But please, please, from the bottom of my heart – do not validate Ryan Reynolds in this way. Please.”

Reynolds’ Oscar nomination would be a particularly bitter pill to swallow as Jackman is a famed lover of musicals. He is currently finishing off his Broadway run in The Music Man before shooting the third Deadpool movie with Reynolds.

While Jackman has not been Oscar-nominated for his musical work yet, he did receive a Grammy in 2019 for his work on The Greatest Showman soundtrack.

Reynolds and Jackman announced Deadpool 3 in a comedic video shared with fans in September.

The film is set to be released in cinemas on 6 September 2024.