Ryan Reynolds says the 1980s were a traumatic and 'brutal time' — and people aren't happy about it

Ryan Reynolds may have a point, but no one is hearing it.

Reynolds was talking about an upcoming film that focuses heavily on American culture in the 1980s when he described what he thinks the decade was really about.

'Sociopolitical tensions everywhere.'

'Gun' shy

Speaking to a reporter from the red carpet, Reynolds said that looking back at the 1980s now, the decade tends to be seen through rose-colored glasses and not for how it actually was.

"What's interesting about when you get far enough away from a time period that's quite distinct, I think there's always a lovely feeling associated with it. It's almost like you pave over all the trauma with, like, puppy dogs and ice cream," the actor began. "The '80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a f**king mess."

Reynolds was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976 and grew up in the province. Now 49, he described the American 1980s as being filled with political tensions.

"It was a tremendous strife," he told Variety. "Sociopolitical tensions everywhere. We were still pretty fresh off a Cuban missile crisis, which was only like 15-20 years before. It’s a tumultuous period, but you look back at it now and you’re like, 'Oh, yeah. "Top Gun." Cocaine!' Like, no! It was really scary."

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Manhattan, 1984. Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Gag him with a spoon

A significant number of notable accounts disagreed with the younger actor's take, with women's sports advocate Jennifer Sey commenting, "Literally no one was talking or worrying about the Cuban Missile Crisis. What is he talking about?!"

"I was born in 1972 and grew up in the 80s. I have no idea what he’s talking about. The 80s were awesome," novelist Mathew Betley wrote on X.

Author Sarah Adams added, "The 80s were amazing, what the hell is this revisionist history."

At least one reader agreed with Reynolds, though, pointing to '80s issues like peer pressure and divorce.

"It was everyone for themselves," he wrote. "Teflon Reagan shining through the sooty shadow of Vietnam and overthrowing democracies in Central America. Quadrupled national debt. Even as a teen I knew it was a bulls**t decade."

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Right said 'Dead'

While the majority of comments strongly disagreed with Reynolds, perhaps the latter reaction was closer to what the "Deadpool" star was referring to.

Reynolds reportedly said that modern popular projects like "Stranger Things" paint a different picture of how society was. Particularly, he said the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union was surging and the exodus of American manufacturing was devastating the working class.

This, along with AIDS, serves as the true reality of the time, Reynolds explained.

"I think when you look back at 2026 and this era, I think they're going to pick on the big-ticket items that don't really leave the footprint culturally that you would think it would. I don't know. ... I wonder what it's going to be. Is going to be like, 'Oh, the COVID era' or something. I have no idea," Reynolds concluded.

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