Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds took time to attack America’s nostalgia for the 1980s calling the era a “brutal, brutal time” for people, wrought with “tremendous strife,” and a time rife with “sociopolitical tensions.”

Reynolds spoke to Variety during the premiere of Mayday at the AMC Lincoln Square theater on New York City on Tuesday, where he praised Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey for having crossed the billion-dollar mark in box office sales. But he also took aim at the 1980s in reference to the new film which follows a U.S. Navy pilot who strikes up a friendship with an ex-KGB agent at the end of the Cold War.

“When you get far enough away from a time period that’s quite distinct, there’s always a lovely feeling associated with it, almost like you pave over all the trauma with puppy dogs and ice cream,” said the Deadpool star, who was born in 1977 and was only 13 by the time the 80s ended.

“The 80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a fucking mess and people forget that. It was a tremendous strife. Sociopolitical tensions everywhere,” he continued. “We were still pretty fresh off a Cuban missile crisis, which was only 15-20 years before. It’s a tumultuous period, but you look back at it now and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. ‘Top Gun.’ Cocaine!’ Like, ‘No!’ It was really scary.”

He went on to opine that the 2000s and 2010s didn’t seem to have an identity of their own and that maybe popular culture will ignore that 20-year stretch and focus more on the COVID era.

“So much of the aughts were like a mix of all the decade’s previous, whereas the decade’s previous were their own thing. I wonder if it’s going to be the Covid era or something. I have no idea. We are living in the friggin’ salad days right now! We just don’t know it,” he said.

Reynold’s film, Mayday, will be released on Apple TV on Sept. 4, and he will reprise his role as Deadpool in the coming blockbuster Marvel superhero film, Avengers: Doomsday set to premiere in December.

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