Inside the Allegation That Ryan Reynolds Cost a Photographer $250,000 — and a Career

A Vancouver photographer says Ryan Reynolds destroyed his life after a 2015 run-in where Reynolds alleged he was struck by the paparazzo’s car — a clash that led to charges of assault with a weapon, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and criminal harassment.

Here is a messy Hollywood-versus-paparazzi saga that never quite went away. A Vancouver photographer says Ryan Reynolds blew up his career over an incident from 2015. The charges tied to that dust-up were dropped in 2017, but the story keeps resurfacing because the photographer, Richard Fedyck, is still telling his side — and it is a lot.

The 2015 parking garage showdown

According to reports at the time, Reynolds said a paparazzo hit him with a car on April 10, 2015, in the underground lot at the Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver, where he was filming. (Some outlets said it was Deadpool 2, even though the dates line up with the first Deadpool — that gives you a sense of how scrambled this got early.)

Police said they recommended charges based on both video and witnesses. Fedyck was arrested and faced three counts: assault with a weapon, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and criminal harassment. Official notes from the incident said Reynolds had a sore knee and back. A judge released Fedyck on conditions that he leave Vancouver until Reynolds finished in town and have no contact with the actor, his wife, or his family.

Fedyck denied he hit anyone and told a local paper the report that Reynolds was struck by a car was flat-out wrong. Reynolds’s team, on the other hand, put out a very clear statement:

"While walking, Ryan was struck by a [paparazzo] driving a car through an underground parking garage. The man fled the scene. Ryan is OK."

Charges dropped two years later

In 2017, court services confirmed the charges against Fedyck were withdrawn. There was no conviction. Before and after the case, Fedyck was a celebrity shooter whose work ran on entertainment TV shows and in outlets like Us Weekly, ET Canada, Lainey Gossip, Daily Mail, Just Jared, The Sun, and more.

Fedyck’s story now: he says Reynolds was the aggressor

Fedyck has talked about this a lot over the years, most recently on YouTuber Kjersti Flaa’s channel. He says he was falsely accused and claims both Reynolds and Blake Lively lied in court to try to put him in jail for doing his job. In his telling, Reynolds followed him on foot into the parking garage, tried to block his car from leaving, and later told police he stood in front of the vehicle. Fedyck says he was at the hotel to photograph Naomi Watts, who he says was also staying there, and that Reynolds wrongly believed he was being stalked.

He also says Reynolds told officers he put himself in front of the car to protect himself and the hotel’s guests. Fedyck argues that if Reynolds really thought there was danger, he would have called 911 or hotel security first — and he says he didn’t. Fedyck maintains the video backs him up, claiming it shows Reynolds hitting the car, not the other way around.

The fallout he describes

On Instagram in 2022, Fedyck posted that Vancouver police hit him with "trumped up charges" on Reynolds’s behalf. He says the ordeal wrecked his reputation, led to depression and anxiety, and made it nearly impossible to get work — he points out that search results still highlight his arrest, while the dropped charges barely got coverage.

He also alleges Reynolds and Lively gave statements that were "99% untrue" and used their longtime publicist, Leslie Sloane, to paint him as a dangerous stalker. Between legal bills and the career damage, he puts his losses at roughly a quarter of a million dollars, saying the legal process alone cost him around $100,000.

The case that went nowhere

Fedyck says his lawyers assembled a mountain of material countering Reynolds’s version, while police pressed him to take a plea deal — something he says he refused. After two years, prosecutors withdrew the case. None of this resulted in a trial verdict or a court finding about who did what; the official record is that charges were laid, and then they were dropped.

Timeline at a glance

• Apr. 10, 2015: Alleged hit-and-run in the Shangri-La Hotel’s underground parking in Vancouver; police say they have witness and video evidence.
• 2015: Fedyck arrested and charged with assault with a weapon, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and criminal harassment. Release conditions include staying out of Vancouver until Reynolds leaves and no contact with Reynolds or his family.
• 2015 statements: Fedyck publicly denies hitting Reynolds; Reynolds’s rep says a paparazzo struck him with a car and fled.
• 2017: Court services confirm the charges are withdrawn.
• 2022: Fedyck posts on Instagram alleging fabricated charges, long-term mental health and career fallout, and media imbalance in coverage.
• 2024–2025: In a new interview on Kjersti Flaa’s YouTube channel, Fedyck repeats that Reynolds was the aggressor, alleges false testimony from Reynolds and Lively, and says the ordeal cost him about $250,000 in total.

So where does that leave things?

It’s a complicated, he-said/he-said situation. Reynolds’s side insisted in real time that he was struck and the driver fled; police recommended charges based on witnesses and video; and Fedyck still says that same video vindicates him. What is clear: the case never went to trial, the charges were dropped, and both narratives are still very much alive. If you’re wondering why it’s bubbling up again now, it’s because Fedyck keeps pushing his version in public — and some of the old reporting was inconsistent from day one.