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Ryan Reynolds on buying his way out of death in 'Self/less'

It's got to feel pretty nice to be considered the ideal body type. Guys like Ryan Reynolds know just how nice. In Self/less, his new sci-fi movie in theaters Friday, he literally plays the part of the perfect body: a vessel for the rich and powerful - in this case, Ben Kingsley's real estate billionaire Damian - to prolong their lives.

Ryan Reynolds stars in the thriller. (ALAN MARKFIELD / Gramercy Pictures)
Ryan Reynolds stars in the thriller. (ALAN MARKFIELD / Gramercy Pictures)Read more

It's got to feel pretty nice to be considered the ideal body type. Guys like Ryan Reynolds know just how nice. In Self/less, his new sci-fi movie in theaters Friday, he literally plays the part of the perfect body: a vessel for the rich and powerful - in this case, Ben Kingsley's real estate billionaire Damian - to prolong their lives.

Damian's body is dying (cancer), and so, with the help of a shadowy organization led by The Good Wife's Matthew Goode, he has his consciousness transferred to a robust receptacle.

That would be Reynolds.

"It certainly doesn't hurt," he said in an interview when it was noted that his perfect physique was written into the script.

Self/less' science isn't perfect. Consciousness cannot be transplanted from one body to another - yet. But Dr. Wolfgang Fink, the founder of the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratories at both the California Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona, pointed to life-prolonging initiatives, including cryogenic freezing. A Russian scientist with a muscular disorder, he added, is to be the first head transplant next year.

Reynolds was only concerned with the science as it served the story. "I found it interesting how any fan of Reader's Digest would think of it," Reynolds said. "It forces us to ask questions about how well we have lived our lives, or lack thereof."

Those ethical issues fascinated Reynolds. For instance, how does being able to buy a new body relate to class? Damian can switch bodies because he can afford it; he is first seen in the film looking out the window of his seemingly gold-plated Manhattan high-rise.

"One thing that struck home for me, when we were scouting locations, we needed apartments in Manhattan that were really upscale, and we met a couple of these billionaires. They would ask the plot of the movie, and they would invariably ask, 'Is this real? Can I do that?' " Reynolds said.

"The hubris it would take to believe you could buy your way out of death. At first, it was shocking, then it was sad. They lost the plot if that is something they would resort to, as if they did not use their first life in a judicious and kind way. It was disturbing."

Scariest to Reynolds is not the nefarious work of scientists, but the existence of people like Damian.

"There are certainly real-life versions of those guys that pray only to the dollar. There's a lot of bodies buried in their wake. You can see that in Ben Kingsley's character. He's morally flexible to some degree, but also he's figured out that his life has been a waste," Reynolds said.

"I think that's the big fear for everyone, that we will be 85 and thinking, 'I wish I did one more movie,' or 'I wish I interviewed one more idiot from Hollywood.' "

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