Ryan Reynolds says he and wife Blake Lively are both natural people pleasers, a trait that has also been passed down to their children.
“I am people-pleasing by default, as is my wife, as are our first two children,” Reynolds, 48, told TIME in a Thursday, June 26, profile for its Most Influential Companies 2025 ranking. “The third was, you know, born flipping the bird. And the fourth is TBD.”
Reynolds and Lively, 37, have been married since 2012 and share daughters James, 10, Inez, 8, and Betty, 5, as well as son Olin, 2.
While reflecting on his people-pleasing habits, Reynolds explained that he tries to work on setting boundaries.
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“Your boundaries can kind of melt and that’s not necessarily healthy,” Reynolds said, adding he often reminds his kids to “disappoint one person” at school each day.
Despite knowing this, Reynolds claimed he still struggles to follow his own advice and revealed how he responds to outside chatter.
“I can read something that says, ‘He should be drawn and quartered.’ I could read something that says I should win a Nobel Prize. Both are meaningless,” Reynolds told the outlet. “None of us are comprised of our best moments. None of us are defined by our worst moments. We are something in the middle.”
Reynolds and Lively have recently been embroiled in a highly contentious legal battle with her It Ends With Us director and costar Justin Baldoni. The actress named Baldoni, 41, in a lawsuit in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and trying to ruin her reputation during their time on set earlier that year.
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Baldoni vehemently denied the accusations before filing a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds. The couple denied the claims before filing respective motions to dismiss. A judge ruled to dismiss Baldoni’s case earlier this month.
While neither Lively nor Reynolds have personally addressed the legal update, the Deadpool & Wolverine star knows that the headlines can affect his business dealings.
“Accessibility and accountability are a big part of how I do things,” Reynolds told TIME. “The people that I work with know me, so there’s never a question of anything like that. If you operate with some degree of core values and integrity, they’re going to help you up. If you’re an a**hole, they’re not. And that’s pretty simple.”
As for Baldoni, news broke earlier this week that he doesn’t plan to revise his accusations and refile a new legal motion.
“The Court’s decision on the motion to dismiss has no effect whatsoever on the truth that there was no harassment nor any smear campaign, and it does not in any way affect our vigorous defense against Ms. Lively’s claims,” his lawyer Bryan Freedman said in a statement. “Discovery is proceeding and we are confident that we will prevail against these factually baseless accusations. Instead of revising the existing claims, our clients will be pursuing additional legal options that are available to us.”
