Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney address ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ critiques
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney chat with USA TODAY’s Jennifer McClellan about season three of the show “Welcome to Wrexham.”
Say goodbye to Rob McElhenney — and hello to Rob Mac.
The “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star, 48, has filed to legally change his name to Rob Mac, a source close to the situation but not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to USA TODAY on June 29.
The actor, who owns the soccer club Wrexham A.F.C. with Ryan Reynolds, previously revealed in an interview with Variety published in May that he was considering a name change. McElhenney said at the time that his last name is a frequent cause of confusion when he’s doing business as part of his company More Better Industries.
“As our business and our storytelling is expanding into other regions of the world and other languages in which my name is even harder to pronounce, I’m just going by Rob Mac,” he told the outlet.
McElhenney, who plays Mac on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” said in the interview that he was concerned about disrespecting his ancestors until he discovered there’s a history of his relatives also tweaking the last name.
“It turns out, as I did my genealogy and I got it back, my last name has been changed so many times,” he said. “As late as the ’60s, there were an offshoot of the McElhenneys that changed our name. And so it’s not like everybody was so precious about it prior to 1965.”
But the actor’s wife Kaitlin Olson told Variety that their two teenage sons aren’t thrilled with the idea. “The kids are really not happy about it, because they have that last name,” she said. “And so do I, legally!”
The change comes more than two years after Reynolds released a comedic song on McElhenney’s birthday dedicated to teaching people how to say McElhenney, accompanied by a music video with clips of people butchering the pronunciation.
“Sure, he’s got a pretty face that people know they know,” Reynolds sang. “They think they recognize him from his big-time TV show. But despite the accolades, despite the load of fame, one thing that they do not know is how to say his name.”