RYAN REYNOLDS

Cofounder and CEO, Maximum effort; co-owner, Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile

- JONATHAN RINGEN

THE PHONE RANG. IT WAS RYAN REYNOLDS.

He had an idea. It was early December, and an ad for Peloton, in which a yuppieish husband buys one of the company’s $2,000 plus stationary bikes for his young wife, had just gone viral—though not in the way Peloton might have hoped.

Commentary homed in on the lead actress’s pained facial expression, surmising that “Peloton Girl,” as she was nicknamed, was being forced to exercise by her sadistic, thinness- obsessed partner. The ad was mocked for being sexist, out of touch, and even a full-on dystopian nightmare. As the furor peaked, on December 2, the company’s valuation dropped by a billion dollars, literally overnight.

At the center of all this, quietly freaking out, was the ad’s lead actress, Monica Ruiz. But then she received a call from one of the people on the planet best-suited to help her navigate this moment.

Reynolds had gotten her number from her agent. He asked if she’d reprise the role in an ad for a spirits company he owns, called Aviation Gin. “I just felt strongly that it would be a bit of digital judo, that she’d be taking this power back and repurposing it in a different way,” says Reynolds in early March, on an Atlanta soundstage. He’s wearing thick-framed glasses and drinking from a comically large refillable water bottle that he jokes “is so big, it’s impacted by the tides.”