Ryan Reynolds opens up about people-pleasing in Hollywood

Ryan Reynolds got recently candid about the “paradox” of people-pleasing in Hollywood.

On Wednesday, October 8, the 48-year-old Canadian-American actor and entrepreneur attended an event, John Candy: I Like Me in Brooklyn, in New York, where he remembered a “profound” thought he once heard from Conan O'Brien.

While conversing with the audience, Reynolds recalled, "He talks about people-pleasing and pleasers in Hollywood. And Bill Murray says it too. You just can't — it doesn't work."

"And what I found really fascinating about that is ... being a people-pleaser is, quite literally, antithetical to having a mental-health crisis or issue," he noted.

The Amityville Horror star went on to give the reason why people-pleasing does not work in Hollywood by quipping, "Because as a people-pleaser, you don't want to burden anyone with your anything.”

Reynolds stated that "the only way out is through" if you are "somebody who's in a mental-health foxhole and trying to get themselves out."

"The only way out is to center yourself, and to the people-pleaser that's [difficult]. So it's a paradox that is fascinating to me," he remarked.

It is pertinent to mention that Ryan Reynolds served as a producer in the forthcoming documentary John Candy: I Like Me, which will be available on Prime Video on October 10, 2025.