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8 min read<\/p>\n8 min read<\/p>\n
Actor Ryan Reynolds, 49, is the youngest of four boys, which means his mom, Tammy, was practiced at managing a dizzying level of chaos in their Vancouver home\u2014way more than the sum of what each boy could generate on his own.<\/p>\n
Then in 1993, when all her sons were grown\u2014just when she might have had a little \u201cher\u201d time\u2014her husband James was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s at 52. Parkinson\u2019s Disease (PD<\/a>)\u2014which actor Michael J. Fox<\/a> has amplified in our collective conversation\u2014is a nervous system disorder that gradually leads to tremors, body rigidity, slowed movement (called bradykinesia), gait changes, and balance issues, among other things. There are non-motor symptoms as well, such as a loss of a sense of smell, cognitive changes, and depression<\/a> and anxiety<\/a>, according to the Mayo Clinic.<\/a><\/p>\n But there was one aspect of PD that blindsided Tammy: About ten years after his diagnosis, James began seeing and hearing things that weren\u2019t there and attaching complex narratives to these visions and ideas. No one had told the family that progressive hallucinations and\/or delusions<\/a> were PD symptoms, and that around half of people with PD<\/a> have them.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he\u2019d been able to include us all in what he was feeling\u2026man, we could have been a real source of empathy,\u201d says Ryan Reynolds.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019d say things like, \u2018You know, the neighbor has got eyes on mom,\u2019\u201d the Marvel series star, now himself a father of four with wife Blake Lively, told me in an exclusive interview. \u201cMy dad would talk about the people in the back seat of the car [who didn\u2019t exist.] Now imagine you\u2019re my mom\u2014she\u2019s the passenger\u2026I can’t even imagine the matrix of what she might have been feeling,\u201d he says, eyes wide in disbelief. Tammy, now 81, \u201cIs one of the smartest, sharpest people you’ll ever meet,\u201d Ryan, also a producer and entrepreneur, adds. \u201cBut it was tough, and she was incredibly overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t dementia<\/p>\n The fact that James\u2019s doctors chalked these visions and thoughts up to other things left Tammy\u2014already his primary caregiver<\/a>\u2014with an even more stressful situation.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the biggest chasm in our relationship\u2014and I could see in it the relationship he had with my mom and three older brothers\u2014was the period in which he became, to a certain degree, an unreliable narrator in his own life,\u201d Ryan recalls, adding that nothing helped his dad as he appeared to be losing his mind. There weren\u2019t great solutions at the time: the antipsychotic drugs sometimes prescribed were known to make the physical symptoms of PD worse, according to a review published in Medicines<\/a>. (There are now treatments that don\u2019t have this side effect.)<\/p>\n While some who have PD may have cognitive decline, James\u2019s imaginary visions and narratives were not a sign of dementia, Ryan says. In PD, neurons in the brain slowly break down and die, affecting how the body moves and communicates with the brain. Hallucinations can occur because of PD itself alongside certain medications used to treat the physical symptoms, according to a study in Nature<\/a>. Other factors, such as a sleep disorder<\/a> and disruptions common to people with PD, research shows, are thought to play a role as well.<\/p>\n James died at 74 (Ryan\u2019s eldest daughter, his namesake, was born not long before he passed), and Ryan has been working to raise awareness about PD, especially this symptom, for years. \u201cThere was a HUGE spike in my father’s sense of well-being when Michael started talking about his Parkinson\u2019s,\u201d says Ryan, who works with The Michael J. Fox Foundation<\/a> and admires his friend for publicly demonstrating what a rich, full life with PD looks like. \u201cThere\u2019s a Japanese term, koeki, that means you\u2019re doing something that kind of benefits the world,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I think that relaying our experience\u2014the tough stuff, the good stuff, all of that\u2014is something I have to do, not [only] want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Ryan and dad James after the birthday candles were blown out.<\/p>\n My dad really struggled with vulnerability\u2014that\u2019s the easiest way to say it. And I understand why. A lot of guys of that generation did. It\u2019s sort of like when you see a bully\u2014you know that every bully has a bully. My dad was the strong, silent type, which is so romanticized for all the wrong reasons. My grandpa was that guy as well\u2014he\u2019d come home from work and mow the lawn, and he\u2019d roll up his sleeves, and that\u2019s about as casual as he got. He kept his tie on!<\/p>\n So my dad never talked about [his symptoms] if he could help it. You would think [a diagnosis] would bring you a sort of relief, but to him, it was treated as a source of shame. He said the word \u2018Parkinson\u2019s\u2019 maybe three times in his life.<\/p>\n But I don\u2019t want to paint him with only one brush. His whole life, my dad punched above his weight class. That is actually really admirable and really beautiful. But it can also be turned into something that’s a little bit darker and a bit more of a progenitor of hardship as he got older.<\/p>\n James\u2019 hallucinations and delusions didn\u2019t show up right away, and the family had no idea they could be part of PD. As they got progressively worse, Tammy handled them as best she could. <\/p>\n I think she would just pacify him, try to find a way to kind of softly get out of the danger of the situation. My father was such a domineering presence that I saw her minimize herself around him.<\/p>\n At the same time, I have a lot of empathy for my dad because he really didn’t need that. What he really needed, I think, was [to do] something proactive\u2014a discussion or a dialogue about what he was going through. This disease has so many nuances to it, but around 50% of folks who have Parkinson\u2019s experience hallucinations and\/or delusions that nobody talks about. Which is actually kind of crazy!<\/p>\n Reynolds believes his dad was lonely in his inability to talk about what he was going through, and his reticence also made it hard for his family to support him as well as they might have. <\/p>\n The fact that [what my dad saw] was so complex\u2014it must have felt so real to him. I would have loved to have known that this is something to expect because of how lonely my dad must have felt, with people around him saying, \u2018Well, he\u2019s an unreliable narrator of his own life, he\u2019s lost his marbles,\u2019 those kinds of things. How isolating and lonely!<\/p>\n You can\u2019t just say [to someone who has delusions], \u201cThat\u2019s not real.\u201d It was real to him. If he\u2019d been able to include us all in what he was feeling\u2026man, we could have been a real source of empathy, and I think we would have had a tender grit he could have responded to really well. If we had known, it would have set us up for a more productive dialogue.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of real shining moments [with my dad]. A couple of Solsbury Hill moments, if you know the Peter Gabriel song<\/a>. I still to this day get sort of emotional about all these little things.\u201d<\/p>\n James\u2019s delusions came and went, Ryan says.<\/p>\n Oh, he had moments that were wildly lucid, and just, you know, he was his old self. My dad had great sense of humor. He was very, very charming.<\/p>\n But charm is dangerous because it can really cover up a lot of things\u2014it can pave over all those weird potholes that you have in life. Like, he\u2019d seem fine, or like he\u2019d make a joke. So charm hides a lot of things. But he was very alone and none of that was aided by the fact that I had a very complicated relationship with him, having nothing to do with his disease progression.<\/p>\n James Reynolds (holding baby Ryan) and two of his other three sons, circa 1977.<\/p>\n The four brothers came over frequently to help Tammy in any way they could. <\/p>\n All four of us just descended on the house. It was [close to] nervous breakdown time\u2014she was in a very distressed place. My mom just really lost herself. You know [when you\u2019re a caregiver] you’re basically saying, \u2018Okay, but any of my wants, desires, hopes, for this short window we have on this great, green spinning wheel flying through space, I’m just gonna absolutely dissolve them. You don\u2019t think about them anymore because there’s no room for it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a terrible tragedy to be in the position that she was in, and all too often it happens to women, more so than men. Our job was to reconnect my mom with her own dreams<\/a> and wishes and hopes without disconnecting her from her husband.<\/p>\n We all also really made sure that my dad was as well cared for as we could, as he needed round-the-clock care at a certain point. We always kind of walked on eggshells around my father. So, [being at home with him] was just another few eggshells to walk on.<\/p>\n But it did increase dialogue between my brothers and me. We are all very close, but we’re all very different, and I love that because we\u2019re offering different points of view. It’s not going to be just this unison kind of swan song that’s coming out of them when it comes to decisions. It’s very thoughtful.<\/p>\n While things weren\u2019t resolved between Ryan and his dad before he died, he is glad he was able to show up in the way he did. <\/p>\n I have a great sadness that my kids never got to meet him. My oldest daughter James was born right before he died. He became very, very emotional toward the end. I wrote him a long, chronological list of all the greatest memories I had of us, as something he could look at each day and just kind of live in those moments. I described in great detail what happened that day, what we did, where we were.<\/p>\n Some of them were the tiniest things ever. One time, I got hurt at school, some kid was a bit of a bully\u2014the normal stuff\u2014and he just took me out to play catch. It was just this little tiny gesture that was so soothing.<\/p>\n I remember also we drank powdered milk and one time he bought a bunch of regular milk\u2014to us that was like winning the lottery. We weren\u2019t poverty-stricken or anything, but we were very much a working class, and four boys are expensive on one modest income. There were a lot of real shining moments. A couple of Solsbury Hill moments, if you know the Peter Gabriel song<\/a>. I still to this day get sort of emotional about all these little things.<\/p>\n Reynolds wants every newly diagnosed person PD to hear about all the symptoms, including the cognitive ones, so they don\u2019t feel so alone, as James did. <\/p>\n The physical symptoms are horrible, but so are the psychological ones. Those two are symbiotic, kind of like pieces of kelp under water\u2014they sway with each other and need to move together in sync. If you could just talk to some of the people that do not talk about [their hallucinations], you’re gonna see a gigantic change in temperament and optimism and quality of life. <\/p>\n![\"Child](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e3d4b161-4a0a-4e43-83de-59bda745a572.jpg\" "\\"Child")
courtesy Ryan Reynolds<\/p>\n
Reynolds, who moved out of the family home at 16, had a complicated relationship with his father, a former police officer and food broker. He wasn\u2019t surprised that James kept how he felt about his physical and emotional struggles with PD to himself.<\/p>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/530e9348-13e0-4e09-8983-78fb203af0d4.jpg\" "\\"James")
Courtesy Ryan Reynolds<\/p>\n