Ryan Reynolds portrays the vigilante Deadpool in the superhero blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine, which is enjoying an amazing run at the global box office. Recently, he interviewed ‘Dadpool’ John Bell, a real-life hero who devoted himself to mental health charity work after losing his son to accidental suicide.
‘Dadpool’ John Bell talks to Ryan Reynolds about late son and charity walk
Bell shared the video of Reynolds interviewing him on his YouTube Channel. In it, Reynolds revealed that he found out about Bell six months before the filming of the video. Bell’s son, Jake, died by accidental suicide in July 2020 at age 15. He was reportedly a big fan of Deadpool.
Earlier this year, Reynolds and fellow Wrexham A.F.C. owner Rob McElhenney donated £15,000 to Bell’s charity initiative Walking 4 Hope after the Sutton-in-Ashfield resident crossed around 140 miles of distance between One Call Stadium in Mansfield and STōK Cae Ras in Wrexham on foot dressed as Deadpool and carrying a bathtub decorated with rubber ducks. (Via BBC)
Bell and Chris Atkinson, who serves as the Chair of Trustees of Walking 4 Hope, set up the charity with the help of family and friends in the hopes of helping people in similar circumstances. Each of the above-mentioned ducks reportedly stands for someone that a family supported by the charity has lost.
Before the interview, Reynolds arranged for professionals to give Bell a Deadpool makeover. When the Free Guy actor asked him about Jake, Bell began, “Oh, where do I start there? He was just so funny, so comical, and we did everything together.”
The Nottinghamshire native continued, “He was my firstborn son. He was just absolutely everything to me.” In the video, Bell can be seen explaining during his walk that the bathtub represents the weight that “people carry when they struggle with mental health, but it’s visual.”
According to Bell, he was in a “very dark place” after Jake’s death. “For a year, I was planning my own death, and talking myself into staying because my family needs me, my kids need me,” he told Reynolds. “What I do now keeps me alive daily because I’ve made my peace with death. I am gonna be reunited with him at some point. But it damn right ain’t now.”
Reynolds lauded Bell on his resilience and how he had transformed his grief into “something powerfully useful.” He added, “I am very grateful that you’ve shared his story. I want to share with you that I too have a son and that if I love him one-tenth as much as you love Jake, I feel like I’ve done a pretty damn good job.”
