The Adam Project is many things: It’s a twisty time-travel saga, a sci-fi adventure and an unexpected family drama. It’s also a deeply personal story for the film’s star, Ryan Reynolds — and not just because it was filmed in his hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia.

“I have not done a lot of movies that really reflected my own personal life the way Adam Project does,” Reynolds told Netflix. “Our past is complicated. I find that we tell ourselves stories. I have stories that I tell myself about my father that sort of helped make sense of my own deficiencies, or my own shortcomings.”

In the film, Reynolds’ character, Adam, travels back in time on a mission to prevent time travel from ever being invented. (For a deeper explanation of the science behind that, we’ve got a whole missive.) In doing so, he crosses paths with not only his younger self (Walker Scobell) but also his deceased father (Mark Ruffalo). In both instances, Adam is able to reconsider his complicated family history in ways he could never have anticipated. And in the process of making the movie, Reynolds did, too.

“I have a very, very complicated relationship with my father, who is dead,” the actor said. “I would love to have a conversation with my dad when he was my age and really look him in the eye and see him as the human being that he was, with all of his flaws and all of the things that made him wonderful as well.” 

While Reynolds was struck by a longing to experience a connection with his father, Adam’s takeaway is a bit more complex. The two Adams of The Adam Project have wildly divergent views of their father; the younger version misses him, while Reynolds’ middle-aged version is bitter and resentful. “I think it’s really interesting in this film that Adam gets to go back and see his dad, not only when he was alive, but his age,” Reynolds continued. “We get to look at each other as peers for a moment, not father/son.”

Reynolds as Big Adam and Walker Scobell as Young Adam.

Doane Gregory/Netflix

For all its science-fiction trappings, this personal angle gave its performers an accessible way into the material. “For me, this is really a story about a son and a father connecting, albeit across the space-time continuum,” Reynolds said. “I think for a lot of people who’ve lost a parent, getting to say goodbye in the place you are now — as opposed to the place you were when they left — is the ultimate wish fulfillment.”

In the film, the anger that Adam feels toward his father eventually gives way to acceptance and even an understanding of his own buried emotions, which reflect Reynolds’ own relationship with his father. “I realized that the reason I was really mad at my father wasn’t because he was a bad guy or because [he] had screwed up as a dad,” Reynolds said. “I was actually mad at my father because he died.” 

That isn’t the only family tribute Reynolds included in the film. The actor took it upon himself to write a scene with his on-screen mother that pays tribute to his real-life one. “Ryan poured so much of himself into this story, too,” director Shawn Levy said. “There’s a beautiful scene in the film between Ryan’s character and his mom, played by Jennifer Garner, that’s really just an outpouring of Ryan’s own feelings about his mom that completely knocks you out.”

For Reynolds, the scene made for a seamless communication from personal experience to performance. “All I had to do was stare at Jen Garner, and just everything just kind of locked into place,” he said. 

Jennifer Garner plays Adam’s mother

Doane Gregory/Netflix

Reynolds’ trademark persona found its way into his vision for the character. As Adam, he’s typically full of quips and bile, but Reynolds also allows the façade to crack just a bit. “I’m the youngest of four boys. I grew up in a house of cops and rough ruffians. My brothers were just monsters,” Reynolds joked. “I stayed alive with a bit of a silver tongue. You know, I wasn’t gonna win with my fists.” 

In a way, making the movie was a time-travel story of its own for Reynolds, as he drew on his childhood memories to inform his adult performance. “Those are those moments that really kind of matter, and you take them with you into your life and your career, and you use them in movies like this,” he said. “Everything about this story rang true for me personally, and it brought out something completely different in terms of my own performance, as well.” 

In the end, The Adam Project helped the star take a trip into a more vulnerable space. “I felt like I got to make peace with some stuff that I still carry around every day, like a little bag of rocks.”

The Making Of | The Adam Project