Ryan Reynolds personally wrote a long letter to her, appealing to her to write a song for his newest movie.
The day a woman says "I Do", she hopes to have her husband by her side for a very long time. Celine Dion thought her husband René Angélil would stick by her through thick and thin when they got married, back in 1994. It all went well for over two decades, and the two of them expanded their brood over a span of 21 years. But, in September 2015, a devasted Dion announced that her husband and long-time manager had throat cancer and that he was given just months to live.
On January 15, 2016, Dion announced that her husband died at their home in Las Vegas "after a long and courageous battle against cancer. The family requests that their privacy be respected at the moment," adding that more details will be provided at a later time. According to USA Today, he was 73 at the time of his death.
Even though her husband's death was not unexpected, it shattered Dion. She soon lost a visible amount of weight and she was criticized for it. She was unable to focus on her career because she was engulfed in grief. Sure, she was performing, but she just couldn't advance in her career.
But someone surprising reached out to her, and they helped her get back on her own two feet and create more music. It was none other than Ryan Reynolds, reveals Forbes.
During a special event at the Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles in September 2019, Dion announced her upcoming album, Courage, adding that it was borne of her personal tragedies. “We’ve all gone through stuff and in order to keep going we have to look inside ourselves and find the courage to move forward,” referring to the loss she endured after losing her husband and her brother to cancer.
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During the same event, she revealed how Ryan Reynolds personally wrote a long letter to her, appealing to her to write a song for his newest movie. Although she was disappointed about not being asked to act in his movie, Deadpool, she was more than happy to compose a song for him. And that's how Ashes was born. The song is about the beauty that comes from pain—the flowers rising from the ashes.
As for Reynolds, he spoke to Cinemablend about why he opted to reach out to Dion. "Of course, the studio piles up a whole bunch of sort of millennial, friendly type singers that are all incredibly talented, but we just thought, 'Let's go right to the legend. Let's see if we can get her.' So we got a way in through her manager. I sent her a long letter describing what Deadpool is and what we're hoping to do, and somehow she got... two hours later or something, she said yes. And then we said, 'How about a video?' and she said yes to that, too!"
Sometimes, all it takes is a small gesture to help someone going through a tough time. If it weren't for Reynolds, Dion might not have written Ashes!
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Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photos By | (L) Ethan Miller (R) Noam Gala
