David Harbour says he called Ryan Reynolds to ask whether he'd 'survive' after 'Hellboy' flopped at the box office

• David Harbour said he called Ryan Reynolds for advice after his film "Hellboy" underperformed.
• Harbour told GQ that he asked Reynolds if he could survive his movie being a "huge flop."

David Harbour said that he called fellow actor Ryan Reynolds for advice after his film "Hellboy" started looking like it was going to perform poorly.

In an interview with GQ, Harbour spoke about the 2019 film, which was a reboot of the Guillermo del Toro's film franchise of the same name. The film was a box-office bomb, netting only $12 million at the box office the weekend that it debuted, Insider previously reported.

When Harbour realized what was happening, he phoned an acquaintance — Ryan Reynolds.

"I called him and I was like, Hey man, I just need to know something," Harbour told GQ. "You know 'Green Lantern'? Huge flop for you. What the fuck is that like, because I think I'm going to hit that right now. Am I gonna be okay? Am I gonna survive this?"

Harbour was referencing Reynolds' own box office "flop," which was released in 2011. In a 2021 episode of the "Smartless" podcast, Reynolds called the movie "the darkest crease in the anus of the universe" while recounting how he met his now-wife, Blake Lively, on set. The film drew negative reviews from critics and underperformed at the box office, netting $219.9 million against its production budget of $200 million, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Harbour told GQ that Reynolds was "sweet" about the inquiry.

"Hellboy" was Harbour's first starring movie role after he became one of the breakout stars of Netflix's "Stranger Things," which premiered on the streaming platform in 2016. The actor said that he was a fan both of the character and its original creator, Mike Mignola, but realized that there was going to be backlash as soon as the film was announced.

"I realized that people did not want that character reinvented," he told GQ. "I was very naive and optimistic about what we were going to do."