Reynolds shares gruelling conditions for Buried

Actor Ryan Reynolds says he'll never complain on a film set again after surviving the gruelling conditions of his taut thriller Buried.

The Canadian star told a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival that he was left physically and emotionally battered by the 17-day shoot.

Reynolds stars as a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq who is kidnapped and buried alive in a wooden coffin. The 94-minute story unfolds in real time as his character frantically tries to figure a way out.

"It was pretty miserable, I've got to say," Reynolds said Monday while seated next to director Rodrigo Cortes.

'[Green Lantern] was nothing compared to 17 days in the box with the dark overlord of your oppression [Cortes], standing over you. It was tough.' Ryan Reynolds

"I'll never complain ever again on a film set as long as I live. They strung me up and threw me all over sound stages in New Orleans on Green Lantern and I just kept getting up and saying, 'Give me another,' because it was nothing compared to 17 days in the box with the dark overlord of your oppression over here, standing over you. It was tough."

The 79-page script required Reynolds to swing through emotional extremes as his everyman character, Paul Conroy, struggles to piece together clues to his location and his mysterious captors.

He's equipped with a few modest tools including a cellphone, lighter, drinking flask and flashlight, while spurts of dialogue come by way of desperate phone calls to family members, co-workers and a hostage negotiator.

Reynolds, who is in nearly every shot, also had to physically light each scene since the movie's only source of illumination are the objects his character uses in the coffin. His movements were carefully choreographed so that lights could be positioned where needed over the course of long takes.

With so many logistical quandaries to resolve, Cortes said he was instantly drawn to the challenge.

"I decided to go against common sense and not think too much about it, because I knew that when I thought about it I was going to understand very easily that it was impossible to make," said Cortes.

"I wanted to understand it when it was too late."

Cortes said seven different coffins were built for the shoot, each one designed to capture different camera angles and performances.

High tension for final scenes

The final scene involved filling a box with sand, leaving Reynolds only an inch of air. Still, the Vancouver native notes the risks involved were not immediately apparent when he showed up to work that day.

"I thought, 'That's interesting, there are paramedics on the set today, what are we shooting?'" he recalled.

It turned out to be a particularly frustrating scene to shoot, largely because the crew members were so worried about his safety they kept interrupting the scene, he said.

"There are moments where you're in panic [mode] and when you're in that state of anxiety, you're departing from the script I don't know what I'm saying, I'm saying everything under the sun and I'm screaming at [character] Dan Brenner who [is] our hostage negotiator to get me out of here because I'm running out of time," he recalls.

"I'm at such a fever pitch, the crew keeps ripping the top of the coffin off in the middle of the take because they're freaked out Finally I said, 'If I call cut get me the hell out of the box but otherwise, let's just keep going.'"

Buried is expected to hit select theatres later this year. The film festival runs through Sunday.