CULTURE

Brianna Hildebrand’s Silver Screen Debut

The young actress talks about playing opposite Ryan Reynolds.


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Photography by Matthias Vriens-McGrath Styled by Elizabeth Stewart

Many teenage girls dream about hunky actors. Few end up starring with them in a movie. So imagine Brianna Hildebrand’s excitement when her first film role was in the Marvel franchise flick Deadpool, opposite Ryan Reynolds. “In high school, I literally Photoshopped myself into a picture with him,” says the 19-year-old Texas native. When she showed Reynolds the photo on set, “he seemed really flattered,” she recalls. “But I bet he was really freaked out.” In Deadpool, out in February, Hildebrand is much less prone to amorous displays. The action movie follows Deadpool (Reynolds), an ex–Special Forces operative who gains superpowers after a botched experiment; Hildebrand plays an apathetic telepathic mutant who literally uses her head as a weapon. To prepare for the film, she learned how to run like a warrior—a skill that came in handy for her latest role as a softball player in the indie First Girl I Loved. “There’s a scene where I’m running from first to second base, and the director was like, ‘You look like a superhero! You have this Tom Cruise thing going on,’” Hildebrand says. “I was like, ‘Yes!’”