Ryan Reynolds and his marketing agency, Maximum Effort, worked at lightning speed to create that now viral commercial featuring "Sex and the City" star Chris Noth.
The actor explained in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter how the ad came about so quickly after the first episode of the "SATC" reboot, "And Just Like That...", debuted last week.
For those who haven't seen the revival series just yet, major spoilers are ahead! At the end of the first episode, Mr. Big, played by Noth, dies from a heart attack after an intense Peloton ride with his fictional instructor named Allegra, played by real-life instructor Jess King.
Just days later, Peloton released an ad showing Noth and King sitting on the couch and toasting to "new beginnings."
"You look great," she says to him. He replies, "I feel great."
Noth then glances at his Peloton bike and says, "Should we take another ride? Life is too short not to."
Next, Reynolds does a voiceover and lists several of the benefits of regular cycling, then finishes by saying, "He's alive."
Fans couldn't help but wonder if Reynolds knew about the shocking plot twist ahead of time, but the actor revealed that he found out about Mr. Big's untimely death when the rest of the world did.
“By pure luck, we’d been talking to Peloton about our Creative-as-a-Subscription product in the week before this all happened,” the 45-year-old said. “I literally met Dara (Treseder, Peloton's CMO) for the first time on Dec. 1. She emailed us right after the episode aired and we all knew just what to do. We try to do these things in a way where everyone wins — Peloton, Chris and the show itself.”
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The team came up with the idea in just 24 hours before they got to filming. The whole process took 48 hours, according to Ad Week.
“Chris was in right away, but it was a whirlwind. For all of us. I certainly helped secure Chris, but Maximum Effort has built itself on challenges like these so, while never ever easy, the secret is practice and not losing heart when challenges inevitably occur,” he told THR.
Reynolds added that he's thrilled that there's been such an overwhelmingly positive response.
“It’s been really satisfying to work so hard so quickly toward something which is this much fun and have it work out. I think people like to see the spirit of Maximum Effort — that we want to have fun and bring people together but not ever at anyone’s expense,” he said.