Ryan Reynolds’ new movie Deadpool & Wolverine got his eldest daughter James’ stamp of approval.
“Well, I’m not saying other people should do this, but my 9-year-old watched the movie with me and my mom, who’s in her late 70s, and it was just one of the best moments of this whole experience for me,” Reynolds, 47, revealed in an interview with The New York Times published on Monday, July 15.
“Both of them were laughing their guts out, were feeling the emotion where I most desperately hoped people would be,” he added.
Reynolds shares daughters James, Inez, 7, and Betty, 4, with his wife, Blake Lively. The couple, who wed in 2012, welcomed their fourth baby, whose name and sex have yet to be revealed, in 2023.
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After first appearing as Deadpool in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Reynolds debuted his foul-mouthed comedic take on the character in 2016’s Deadpool and 2018’s Deadpool 2. Deadpool & Wolverine marks the franchise’s third outing and will see Reynolds’ titular antihero team up with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to fight a common enemy.
While his daughter may not be the film’s target audience, Reynolds told the outlet that watching R-rated movies at a young age helped shape his comedic stylings. “When I saw rated-R movies when I was a kid, they left a huge impression on me,” he explained. “I didn’t feel like people were pulling punches, and it’s been a huge inspiration to so many of the things that I look to make now.”
Though Reynolds and Lively, 36, have primarily kept their children out of the spotlight over the years, they often open up about their family life in interviews. “My kids, they have Canadian passports as well, and they feel a real connection to that,” Reynolds said of his kids’ dual citizenship in a June interview with People. “It’s a point of pride of theirs. They’ve also spent huge amounts of their formative years in Canada and particularly Vancouver.”
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One month prior, Reynolds explained to the outlet why anxiety makes him a “better” dad, stating, “Your focus is less on yourself and more on your kids. … Now I love that I have anxiety, I love that I’ve had anxiety. Because when I see my kids experiencing some of that, which is probably genetic, I know how to address it in a way that is compassionate, that actually allows them to feel seen. I know that I can’t just fix it. And I can communicate all that stuff to them and with them. I’m always grateful for it.”
That same month, Reynolds addressed speculation that the name of his and Lively’s fourth child was featured on Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. Swift, 34, previously featured James, Inez and Betty’s names in the lyrics of her Folklore track “Betty.”
“We always wait for Taylor to tell us what the child’s name will be,” he joked to Savannah Guthrie on the May 13 episode of Today. “And I’ll say this, we’re still waiting, so Taylor, let’s maybe start [on that], you know. She’s a prolific writer. I mean, what are we doing here? And lazy’s not a word I’d attach to Taylor.”
Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on Friday, July 26.
