‘The Croods: A New Age’ Star Ryan Reynolds on His Last Call with Alex Trebek, Plus: His Holiday Plans

Actor Ryan Reynolds is back as Guy in “The Croods: A New Age.”

“Extra’s” Nate Burleson and his daughter Mia spoke with Ryan about the movie, and his last conversation with “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek.

After Trebek lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, Reynolds posted a heartfelt tribute on social media. He told Nate, “It forces you to look around a little bit and see the people and the faces that are in our lives every day and really remember not to taking them for granted. I was talking to Alex on the phone two months ago, and that was amazing then just like that he was gone.”

What did they discuss? Reynolds revealed, “It was a conversation about one of the shows he had coming up. I had been on the show a number of times, he was asking me about perhaps coming on again. I was shooting in Atlanta and was unable to do it… When you speak with people like that that you grew up watching and suddenly you are talking to them on the phone, you start to reflect.”

Ryan emphasized, “You just never know; tomorrow is not a given. Hug them tight, the people in your life. It was really shocking and sad. Obviously, he was sick and it wasn’t totally, wildly unexpected. It’s still heartbreaking nonetheless. It’s absolutely gut-wrenching.”

The sequel to “The Croods” centers on the prehistoric family from the 2013 original being challenged by a rival family, the Bettermans, who claim to be more evolved.

Dishing on how much fun it was to do the movie, Ryan said, “You get in that sound booth, I’ll do the script, then sometimes I will goof around and kind of play and try stuff that I know they are never going to use. sometimes a little bit wacky or weird, and three months later I will come back to the booth… And I see that they actually animated all these things I thought they would never use… You never know what’s gonna work. Creatively, it’s a lot of fun.”

“I always say that in order to be really good at something, you kind of have to be prepared to be bad at it,” Reynolds continued. “When I go into those booths, I am ready to act like a double money sign, just have some fun, and let my freak flag fly.”

“’Croods’ is kind of an all-ages movie — anyone can see it and anyone can relate to it,” Ryan pointed out.

As for the holidays, Ryan will be spending Thanksgiving in Canada, where he is filming a movie. He shared, “I have three kids that are 5 and under. They are fully aware and excited about it.”

Ryan is looking forward to a better future. He commented, “As a whole, when you look back at 2020, there are just a litany of lessons that I think everyone can look back and hopefully move the ball forward… You have to, to a certain degree, look at the good things that are coming out of it, and I think the good things are, is change, real change, not just like, ‘Oh, we should really do that thing,’ — no, it’s really going to happen.”