VIDEO: Ryan Reynolds sends message to graduating class at his BC high school

Ryan Reynolds is one of British Columbia’s favourite sons and he’s just a stand-up guy in general.

He put that on full display today when he posted a video message for the 2020 grads of Kitsilano Secondary School, where he graduated around a quarter-century ago.

While the overall tone of the message was serious and heartfelt, there was still some classic Reynolds humour mixed in.

“I don’t have anything super interesting prepared for you,” he said.

“I just thought I’d pop in and phone this thing in, the way I phoned in my final year at Kitsilano Secondary School.”

His speech was centred around one little chestnut of wisdom, as he called it, which was basically to practice empathy and compassion for others.

“You’ve heard the term ‘divide and conquer’, you see it everywhere, and dividing people is just a means to distract them, disarm them, whereby giving one an opportunity to conquer,” he explained.

“The world seems to subsist on this idea more and more and more; and it’s getting really f***ing boring. It’s just overdone.”

He went on to say that this generation wants to be stylish and ahead of the curve and that can be done by practicing empathy.

“Empathy has got me so much more, so much farther, not only in my life but in my career,” he continued.

“Mirroring, empathizing, validating someone else’s experience or point of view is just about the most radical act of ambition that you can ever demonstrate.”

He said that viewing the world in that way has made him money, friends, priceless memories, the ability to accept and provide love, how to learn from mistakes and, above all, it’s made him happy.

With his message delivered, Reynolds cracked a couple more jokes to wrap up his thoughtful speech and delivered one more message through text.

“Oh, and I miss Nat’s Pizzeria. Every grad gets one large pizza on me. Good luck everybody.”

The world could certainly use more Ryan Reynolds.