Why Julian Dennison's Deadpool 2 mutant is a step forward for big screen diversity

"I can make other kids who are like me feel good about themselves too," says Kiwi actor Julian Dennison.
JOE LEDERER
"I can make other kids who are like me feel good about themselves too," says Kiwi actor Julian Dennison.

He may be repeatedly referred to as "a splash of diabetes" throughout Deadpool 2, but Lower Hutt teen and de facto New Zealand national treasure, Julian Dennison, doesn't mind.

For him, the chance for change is too good to pass up with this latest superhero outing.

Imagine you're an overweight kid, watching these square-jawed pieces of perfection flexing their abs and looking pristine in spandex while saving the world. Dennison doesn't have to picture it – that was how he watched the X-Men and Avengers movies over the past decade. But he never once left the cinema, feeling like he – or his mates or other kids like him – could be up there on the big screen. 

"I used to watch the films and see characters I've always wanted to be and who don't look like me. They were these chiselled actors – heroes, strong, really muscly; it's really important for me to play this character for other kids who look like me or are plus-size," Dennison reveals when we meet on Auckland's waterfront.

FilmsActu / YOUTUBE
Deadpool himself utters Julian Dennison's character's name in a new TV spot.

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In Deadpool 2, the sequel to the 2016 outing for Ryan Reynolds' wise-cracking, potty-mouthed, fourth-wall breaking comic-book hero, Dennison is integral to proceedings.

He plays Russell Collins, a mutant kid with fiery superpowers known as Firefist, who's been in care and passed around the system. He finds himself front and centre of a Terminator-like hunt from Deadpool 2's antagonist, Cable (a beefed up Josh Brolin, already enjoying success as Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War).

Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Julian Dennison stare off into their beautiful future together.
FACEBOOK/RYAN REYNOLDS
Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Julian Dennison stare off into their beautiful future together.

Enter Reynolds' Deadpool, who ,saddled with the burning desire to become a parent, decides that Collins is his key to personal (and warped) salvation.

For Dennison, the Hollywood blockbuster sequel is a massive step-up into the big leagues.

Granted, there can't be anyone who doesn't know his round, cheeky face. As kid-on-the-run Ricky Baker in Taika Waititi's biggest-film-in-New Zealand Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Dennison sealed his place in our collective hearts, building on the promise that saw him net a New Zealand film award for his role as Solomon in 2013's Shopping.

20thCenturyFoxFilm
Deadpool 2 has been a massive success around the globe, despite not having Russell Crowe in the cast.

As we talk about this new role , surrounded by minders to ensure no spoilers are dropped (a massive veil of secrecy's been perpetuated by this film's obtuse and misdirectional marketing), Dennison's more aware of the importance and possibilities this Hollywood breakthrough role offers to viewers like him.

It's the chance to see a plus-size superhero on screen – something Collins laments during a tender scene in the film where he tells Reynolds' Wade Wilson that big guys like him aren't – and can't be – heroes.

"I feel like it's a responsibility, of course; health is a big thing in everybody," Dennison says.

Dennison wants to be a role model for kids of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds.
Lawrence Smith
Dennison wants to be a role model for kids of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds.

"You gotta feel good in your own body – and I do feel good, I could be healthier. I can be healthy, but you've got to make sure you feel good in your body, and also I can make other kids who are like me feel good about themselves too.

"Deadpool is its own thing and it's very quirky, breaks out the box and doesn't follow the rules of normal superhero movies, so it was really important for me to show that kids that look like me, who are chubbier than other kids, that they can be the hero they want – it was a dream of mine to be a superhero and it's come true."

The push for diversity in 2018 is a big movement in Hollywood currently in a post-Weinstein and Me Too world, but the ripples of what Dennison's achieving here will spill out over time – although possibly a lot quicker than he could expect.

The Merc with a Mouth is back in Deadpool 2.
The Merc with a Mouth is back in Deadpool 2.

Just hours after we meet, he tweets out a promotional piece for June's upcoming Oz Comic-Con, where he'll appear as a guest.

He's massively excited about the possibility of people dressing up as him as Russell Collins. Animated and with his eyes brimming with burning passion, he simply can't wait.

"Ryan [Reynolds] already posted a photo of someone cosplaying as Russell from the trailers of the film and so I hope I get some people who do cosplay as me - 'cos that's never happened."

Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce sat through 27 hours of the Deadpool 2 trailer, juts to speak with its leading star, Ryan Reynolds.​

Drawing a breath, he pauses – "No it has, with Ricky Baker. But it will be cool to see what people do with Russell." 

Dennison thought he had to tone down the comedy for the relatively serious role – and while he still lands a few zingers and even pulls himself out of shot at one point with an imaginary rope, he was conscious that he couldn't outshine the star of the film, Ryan Reynolds.

"You can't really do comedy if you're working with Ryan Reynolds, eh? He outplays everyone in that field, so I couldn't really 'dial it down', because he was just so much better than me at comedy."

Julian Dennison won the heart of New Zealand in Taika Waititi's film Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
KANE SKENNAR
Julian Dennison won the heart of New Zealand in Taika Waititi's film Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

He's full of praise for fellow actors, the experience of working with trailblazing John Wick and Atomic Blonde director David Leitch and, obviously, for Reynolds who tailor-wrote the role for him. Rumour has it that Reynolds hit up Taika Waititi (the pair famously starred together in failed 2011 comic-book stinker Green Lantern) after seeing his turn as Ricky Baker.  

"That was cool to know that Ryan wrote Firefist for me. They saw me in Wilderpeople and went for it. David Leitch is quite a physical director, he used to be a stuntman so he was really into the action, so he made it feel like it was so much fun. But also he was really understanding to go into a scene, what it would look like and how I would do it and he'd mould it from that."

But if Deadpool 2 brings him accolades, this teen is painfully aware that he's transitioning from a child actor into what's next. Initially, Dennison said he wanted to be a director, but that's potentially gone on hold as he explores his craft further.

"I hope I haven't peaked here and that it's all downhill from here! I want to expand my sort of acting 'thingy', yeah I hope it opens doors, because I want to be taken seriously as an actor. Not a child actor, but as an serious actor; I want to do more emotional films, more action films – I think I will, but I don't want to jinx it.

"I'm looking abroad you know? There's so much going on at the moment in New Zealand and I don't think there's room for me. I want to expand and make my own way."

He's cagey about whether he would return for Deadpool 3 or any other films in the X-Men universe, but towards the end of our all-too-brief time together, he conspiratorially leans forward and reveals he's thought about it – "It'll be really cool to do like a solo film, a Firefist movie, I don't know if it would happen. But 20th Century Fox, if you're reading this...."

Yep, he's about to be big – but the final question to him, as has happened to so many of our other Kiwi exports – how long till Aussie tries to claim him as one of their own?

He smiles his big goofy grin, nods his head knowingly, and deadpans: "They probably already have – the government's probably already making a plan on how they can kidnap me. Nah, I'm going to stay true to myself. I'm not going to get big headed. I'll make sure I give back – probably just to my family though, so I can just take it back after I've seen them on the news saying 'Oh Julian gave us this'. But I'll only take it back when the TV cameras have gone."

Deadpool 2  opens in New Zealand cinemas on May 16

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