Ryan Reynolds pays heartwarming tribute to Eric Gilliland

Ryan Reynolds paid homage to TV writer and producer Eric Gilliland who died at age 62 on September 1.

The Deadpool & Wolverine actor’s heartfelt tribute took centre stage during his acceptance speech for a screenwriting honour at the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards.

“I want to dedicate this very fine honor to a writer, to one of my closest friends, Mr. Eric Gilliland,” Reynolds said on the Los Angeles stage. “I wouldn’t be standing here if not for that man,” the actor said Thursday.

For those unversed, Gilliland died from complications of cancer at age 62 on September 1.

During his speech, Reynolds, 48, recalled meeting the “magical” Gilliland almost three decades ago “when I was a scrawny, desperately hungover 19-year-old kid.”

“I didn’t really know who I was yet. I was trying on personalities like they were shirts, and Eric liked me, and that made me like me,” he continued as he accepted the award presented by Variety.

Reynolds credited Gilliland for introducing him to “greats” like Jack Benny and Buster Keaton and inviting him “into writers’ circles that no high-school dropout had any business being invited to.”

The father-of-four joked his late friend “had many shortcomings,” and “was not great at housekeeping, not great at buying new shoes… He hung in there until his feet looked like they were somehow wrapped in a foxhole from World War I.”

“But Eric’s prime virtue was that he was kind and that he showed up for people. He showed up for everyone, and he didn’t care if you were a waiter or busboy or movie star, and I hated that,” Reynolds went on.

Reynolds went on to explain how Gilliland “modeled a way” of being for him when the actor was at his “most impressionable” and “varying degrees of success.”

“I have tried to live up to that impossible standard that Eric set. He was as good at being brilliantly funny as he was at being a friend and mentor.”

Gilliland was a TV writer best known for his work on Roseanne. He eventually became the show’s executive producer, and later, a consulting producer for series like That ’70s Show and The Connors.

On a concluding note, Reynolds also joked that Gilliland would “probably be quite alarmed to learn that we held a memorial for him last week in New York City with 300 of his best friends, paid for by the proceeds of his estate.”

“His memorial was a testament to a man who lived life just about as beautifully as any life could possibly be lived,” he told the audience. “And it really reminded me of what I love most about this business, and it’s that we all get to work together. We get to create things together.”

Reynolds noted how much Gilliland “inspired so many people to be the best version of themselves,” ending with, “And so if you run into a scrawny, desperately hungover 19-year-old who recently threw up in the rose bush outside your office, give that kid a break.”