On Monday, when Ryan Reynolds, star of the Deadpool films, took the conference stage in Las Vegas alongside Richard Galanti, Costco's retired chief financial officer, the pairing might have seemed unexpected.

The fast-talking Hollywood A-lister is known for dropping expletive-laced quips, even vividly describing his fear of vomiting while wearing the Deadpool mask. Galanti—dubbed Costco's "spokesperson" for his polished earnings call skills honed over a four-decade tenure as financial chieftitle—is known for bringing data to life with plainspoken, even quirky, customer trends and return stories.

Yet the two share a friendship that transcends these differences. Last summer, Galanti appeared in an ad for Mint Mobile as an "inflation fighter"—the wireless carrier was later sold by Reynolds for$1.3 billionto T-Mobile. In the ad, he proudly discussed how he kept Costco's hot dog and soda combo priced at $1.50.

This week, the two brought that chemistry—call it a "hot dog-driven bromance" or marketing savvy—to one of the accounting industry's largest conferences. Together, they delivered the opening keynote for the American Institute of CPAs'Engage 2026 Las Vegas conferencethis week.

Reynolds quickly energized the crowd while insisting he wasn't pandering. The Canadian actor, whose father was a police officer, said he came from a working-class family and wished the film industry had more accountants to keep budgets in check.

"I happen to be in a room with several thousand intimidating accountants, but I've always wanted accountants to run show business because I always say too much time and money hurts creativity, and that's absolutely true," Reynolds said. "They're like firing money at every problem with a T-shirt cannon."

He cited an example: when Deadpool was first greenlit, he had little money and had to think creatively about financing. Learning that the shoot required several Chevrolet Suburban SUVs that would be wrecked, he contacted the automaker to see if a deal could be struck.

"So the next day I called Chevrolet and said: 'Hey, what if we destroy your cars and at the end of the movie I say, "No Suburbans were harmed during the making of this film"?'" he recalled. "Anyway... you've got to find a way to make it happen, find a path, and then you can make a $50 million movie that should have cost $150 million."

Galanti, for his part, was brought in to tell the story of the famous hot dog and soda combo and the tough decision he had to make in switching from smaller kosher hot dogs to larger, non-kosher private-label ones—prompting the company to open two factories to produce them itself.

The two also discussed Galanti's experience in the ad. To film it, Galanti joined the Screen Actors Guild for a day. During the shoot, Galanti's 25-year-old daughter flew to New York just to meet Reynolds.

"He was very nice, and my wife and all my friends asked: 'Is he as nice and as handsome in person as he is on screen?' I said: 'Absolutely not,'" Galanti said deadpan. "No, he's shorter than me."

The two also touched on the power of humor and storytelling. Galanti recalled that as CFO of a major company, he was responsible for tax, audit, accounting, compensation, and auditing. But having a sense of humor helped boost his CFO rating.

"In my 40-year career, I went from a D to a solid B... but in my mother's eyes, what made me an A was my ability to be humorous, and because I hosted all the earnings calls, I added a little humor to them," Galanti said. "It makes a big difference."