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Ryan Reynolds says a popular app helps him cope with his lifelong anxiety

Ryan Reynolds
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  • Ryan Reynolds told the New York Times that he uses the meditation app Headspace to cope with an anxiety that he has "always had."
  • Headspace, a popular app among Olympic athletes, Wall Street executives, and a number of celebrities, teaches meditation through breathing exercises and visualization.
  • Reynolds, whose film "Deadpool 2" premieres this month, said he uses the app before promotional interviews and talk-show appearances. 
  • He also said that he finds relief by conducting most of his recent interviews in character, as Deadpool.  

In a New York Times profile promoting his upcoming film "Deadpool 2," Ryan Reynolds discussed how he copes with anxiety, which, as the Times wrote, makes him "often, quite secretly, a nervous wreck."

Reynolds told the Times that he uses the meditation app Headspace before promotional interviews and talk-show appearances to quell the anxiety that he said he has "always had."

"I have anxiety, I’ve always had anxiety," Reynolds said. "Both in the lighthearted 'I’m anxious about this' kind of thing, and I’ve been to the depths of the darker end of the spectrum, which is not fun."

Headspace, a popular app among Olympic athletes, Wall Street executives, and a number of celebrities, has around 8.5 active million active users, according to the company's most recent report on its user base.

The app has a straightforward set-up that teaches you how to meditate through breathing exercises and visualization. For an in-depth take on the app, you can read this Business Insider feature on Headspace from 2016.

In addition to using Headspace, Reynolds said that he also finds relief by conducting most of his recent interviews in character, as Deadpool.  

“When the curtain opens, I turn on this knucklehead, and he kind of takes over and goes away again once I walk off set,” he said. "That’s that great self-defense mechanism. I figure if you’re going to jump off a cliff, you might as well fly.”

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John Lynch was a senior editor at Business Insider, where he oversaw mobile coverage for the Reviews team, including topics like smartphones, tablets, wearables, and cell carriers.A consumer tech expert, John has more than five years of experience in service journalism and nearly a decade in digital journalism. ExperienceIn 2019, John founded Business Insider's Tech Reference vertical, which published a trusted catalog of thousands of explanatory guides to consumer tech products and services.He started at BI as a media and entertainment reporter and had interviewed dozens of prominent names for the site, including Morgan Freeman, Oliver Stone, and Ken Burns. CNN, NBC, ESPN, and other publishers cited his work. Why you can trust JohnJohn's experience building Business Insider's expansive Tech Reference vertical gave him an expert-level, wide-angle view of consumer tech, with a focus on the topics he edited and oversaw for the Reviews team. His product testing methodologies are grounded in having edited hundreds of how-to and troubleshooting articles on smartphones, tablets, and wearables from myriad brands, along with explainers and news coverage on a broad range of tech products and features. He has a keen sense of the relative worth and function of tech products from half a decade of hands-on experience covering the ins and outs of the latest tech. For the Reviews team, John also has years of practice reading the fine print of cell carrier plans to assess their value for the average consumer and hunting for and recommending worthwhile tech deals. ExpertiseHis expertise includes: 
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Education John holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and was the managing editor of The Michigan Daily's Arts section.