I still remember when Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively got together. It was good gossip, because it seemed (at the time) like Blake basically dumped Leonardo DiCaprio to get with Ryan. A baller move, without a doubt. Blake and Ryan made sense from the start too – she had been talking about wanting to settle down and start a family, and Ryan had spent years trying to find a lady to do just that. They went from “just dating” to engaged/living together/married in about two seconds. This week, Ryan appeared on the SmartLess podcast with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett and he spoke a lot about Blake, how they started and how she’s basically everything to him:
When he met Blake: “I met Blake on the darkest crease in the anus of the universe called ‘Green Lantern’,” he said of the two co-starring in the 2011 superhero film. “We were friends and buddies, and about a year and a half later we went on a double date but we were dating separate people.” Reynolds, 44, went on to say that the two “always kind of kept in touch sort of casually.”
Begging: “Next thing you know, she was going to Boston, I was going to Boston and I said, ‘Well, I’ll ride with you.’ We got on the train and we rode together,” he continued. “I was just begging her to sleep with me.” When asked what the “first move looked like,” Reynolds joked: “I would use a little bit of tear stick so I could get the tears kind of rolling … then I would tell a little sob story about my life.”
A fairytale: Jokes aside, Reynolds described the moment he knew he and Lively, 33, had gone from casually dating to a lifelong commitment as “one those those silly moments out of a fairytale.” “A week later I was like, ‘We should buy a house together,'” Reynolds added. “And we did.”
Raising their three girls James, 6, Inez, 4, and Betty, 1: “They had a tough time,” he said about Zoom school for the two older girls. “I was seeking out external help left and right. I was reading books. I was trying someway to steer the ship. Blake was so much better at it then I was because I’m also a child.”
How their marriage works: “I’m present with my kids and my wife and my marriage is incredibly important to me and that friendship is important to me,” he said. “Blake and I don’t do movies at the same time. When Blake is ready to do some stuff, I’ll step down and then we go back and forth. She’ll do a film and I’ll be with her on location hanging out with the kids.”
[From USA Today and JustJared]
We’ve actually heard some version of the “we were on a double date with other people” story before. I tend to believe that Blake was with Leo DiCaprio and Ryan was with… someone, we don’t know. But the date clearly stuck in his head as the moment when he knew Blake was the one. Soon after, Blake and Leo were done and Blake and Ryan were taking romantic weekend trips to Charleston and house-hunting together.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Good for them! They seem happy.
👍👍👍
I’m sure I’ll be in the minority and probably cynical too, but it always seem like they have to prove how happy, in love they are and how perfect their relationship is, which gets as annoying as their banter on social media as time goes by.
I feel the same way! I think they’re incredibly try hard, in your face, and I can’t stand their public persona. They really tried for a few years to become the new Hollywood IT couple.
Thank you! My thoughts exactly! Thought I was the only one!
They seem like they’re from central casting. Just very stage-managed. And I can’t get past that plantation wedding.
They seem very heavily into playing the game and that makes stories about them feel very artificial.
I agree. What about her complaints about paps. Anyone read her stories lately ? She has been complaining for years, which I can get, I can imagine paps can be annoying, but she is not taking serious actions against them, nope, she asks her fans to report outlets that repost candids of her kids. I’ve seen tons of celebrities kids’ faces blurred on gossip websites, so it can be done, and I don’t think asking your fans to become the internet police will do much.
Well she dated Leo DiCaprio JUST to get him so…
They make so much sense together. And his expression in that photo of him, Blake, Taylor, and Tom H’s photo will be forever etched in my mind. Ill cherish that image always
What photo? Link please!
https://www.gq.com/story/ryan-reynolds-hiddleswift
I think Nomegusta is referring to the infamous 4th of July weekend when Taylor Swift was dating Tom Hiddleston. I think Blake was pregnant, and Ryan has a real “WTF am I doing here?” look on his face: https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/07/06/07/taylorswift4.jpg
I did not know that their youngest is named Betty…that made me smile this morning!
This podcast is awesome and this interview was great! Ryan is a hard worker and they seem to have a very devoted life together. And they’re so beautiful it hurts lol
(the part where Bateman starts referring to Blake as an angel was particularly hilarious)
I love this podcast so much. Discovered it this winter and have listened to almost all of their podcasts. The one with Martin Short was literally one of the funniest things I’ve ever listened to. The three hosts are all personal friends and their interactions and the sh*t they give each other is so hilarious. Bateman and Arnett especially are great together. Only other podcasts I listen to are political (shoutout to Pod Save America and Hacks on Tap) so that is a great change of pace. Ryan Reynolds is really funny throughout the interview.
Aw, I like them. They seem to have a good partnership and dynamic.
💛💚💙💙💜
Especially as Blake’s dad just died.
It’s sweet to hear their happy stories.
They seem sweet, genuinely happy, and well matched, good for them. I like how family-centric they are and how they really seem to put their private happiness ahead of everything.
I love all their kids’ names individually but it drives me bonkers when there’s not like a “theme” to sibling names, and these names are ALL OVER THE PLACE.
‘Theme’? Like first name is a boys name all have to be boys names? Or unisex? Actually I love that they are not ‘themed’. They are individual kids and so have individualistic names. Go Blake& Ryan! But truly, His relationship with scarlet has always been more interesting to me. They were so much more private together then than in their subsequent relationships. Weren’t they married when he did green lantern? And she got pregnant just a couple of years after they split so I don’t think that was the problem.
Theme as in…all traditional names, all trendy names, all nickname-ish names, etc. Not necessarily matchy, just a little closer than Inez and Betty, that’s all. But as I said, I really like all three names.
I had the same thought. Those three names together make no sense in my head for a group of sisters. They sound plucked from three different families, or eras. I mean, name your kids whatever you prefer, but I bet many people who meet their family secretly find that discordant, too. “Blake and Ryan” sound good together, though.
That’s such an interesting comment…I’ve never thought of it before, but sibling’s names do usually have a loose theme that connects them. (In my family it is “Irish-Catholic!!!)
I listened to the podcast and it was great. I really love the Smartless podcast. I find Blake and Ryan to be a good match. I find it hard to fully gravitate to them because there has been so many rumours about both of them being assholes and cheaters (who knows if that was true or not), Ryan seems well liked in the industry so it’s possible it was just rumours, Blake, not a good actor by any means but she seems pretty harmless these day, and she seems to have matured.
Sounds sweet! I joke that my ah-ha for my husband was like a bad Dawson’s Creek Pacey-Joey moment. 😅 I was dating someone else but the week we broke up my husband was like “date!” By week 2 it was “I love you!” By week 5 he had moved in and clearly never left because we got married 😆. So good for the both of them knowing what they wanted and going for it.
I would LOVE to know what happened with Leo. She went to go visit him all the way in Australia and left after just a few days.
Leo would always continue to have side pieces but I think Blake was really the one that got away and it did a number on his ego.
Me too.
Leo’s follow up relationship with Erin Heatherton was sooo chemistry free, it was 😂😂😂
Esp as – ahem – ‘sources’ always made a point to brief papers that Erin was the one, how Irmelin loved her, and Leo would for sure marry her, unlike Blake.😉😉
I actually wonder if Giselle is the one who hot away and Lively was the one he thought maybe but just couldn’t pull the trigger. I mean she jumped quick.
I want to know what happened with Leo too! The way she played him was masterful and easily the most interesting thing about Blake Lively, IMO.
Giselle is the one who got away. That was a real relationship. She probably out earned him at the time too. Blake could probably tell Leo’s light wasn’t on, he seems a long way from committing to any partnership.
The funny guy and the hot girl who probably tosses her golden mane as she laughs at his jokes. They do seem well matched in a very traditional way.
The double-date in question: I think Blake was with Leo or Ryan Gosling (remember that?!) and Ryan was with Charlize Theron (that was a short thing as well).
Smartless is such a good podcast. The three of them are funny in different ways and play their “roles” ripping on each other. Will is hilarious, Jason can be a dick (haha, seriously though) but is also quite funny. Sean is sweeter and more serious but gets in some good jokes. The Ryan Reynolds episode is great!
It’s possible that Ryan was still with Scarlett Johansson on that double date — married people do go on dates! They divorced in 2011, but I can’t remember if there was a long separation. Ryan married Blake in 2012.
OMG, I totally forgot about his first marriage!
That explains so much about ScarJo’s current husband. I don’t find Colin Jost funny *at all* but Ryan Reynolds is hilarious (even though he’s not technically a comedian) so that’s her type, I guess.
I’m obsessed with that podcast. Love to wake up Monday morning and see who they’ve got on. The fun sh*t they give each other is so hilarious. Love that they’re friends in real life.
@Anne Call – yes! I’m relatively new to them and listened to the back catalogue out of order. The first episode I listened to was the Stephen Colbert one – a classic!! 🙂
@Green Desert, oh that Stephen Colbert one was so good. Talking about kids helping him run the show from his house and the bit at the end about Conan was so hilarious. Conan interview was also great. So many good ones-Tina Fey, Martin Short, Amy Sedaris, Julie Louis Dreyfus, Ricky Gervais and Jen Aniston one was good because they’re close friends with her and she seemed really relaxed.
I was killing myself laughing when Stephen described what Conan looks like as something the Celts pulled out of a bog for some ancient Celtic ritual!
Amazing how history is being re written. They were having a emotional affair on the set of Green Lantern while he was still very married to Scar Jo.
He wanted a Susie Homemaker ( and that was not how Scar Jo rolled) and they next day Blake showed up with home made cookies for him.
‘i begged her to sleep with me’
‘shes so out of my league’
Why does society love the stories of men bragging that their wives are ‘better’ than them? Do women do this? I think wed get funny looks if we said that. Not ‘hes a great guy im lucky’ etc. but hes better than me.
Women are expected to be better i guess, while guys get to have flaws be mediocre yet still deserve a partner who’s ‘better’ than them.
Leaves me seeing my cool female friends dating guys i think arent good enough yet they dont see it themselves because society tells them theyre supposed to be superior? Is that some sick joke so women are with men who arent good for them?
Lol, I think it’s just a bit of idle flattery. It’s the same whatsapp group as downplaying achievements in a convo, like “this old thing?” just to look polite and like you’re not full of yourself.
It is insincere though.
Meg has a point. I’m overweight and rather ordinary looks-wise, and I can’t PAY a guy to go out with me, because even the biggest schlub is holding out for at least an “8,” if not a “10.” Men are taught to aim high, while women are told to settle.
With increased economic independence, women are starting to expect more and not settle so easily. But there are still too many nice, decent ladies like me who stay at home on Saturday nights and sleep alone, because many men have a bloated sense of what they “deserve.”
Apparently I’m in the minority for seeing massive red flags at the “begging her to sleep with me” story? It comes across incredibly creepy and manipulative. Faking tears to guilt her into sleeping with her? I cannot believe he would share that horrific story.
I’ve always side-eyed this couple for their plantation wedding (I know they apologized) and the entire antebellum fawning they’ve done, but I ALSO (perhaps unfairly) side-eye Ryan Reynolds for dating more… um… how do I say this kindly, Alanis Morisette Scarlett Johansson Charlize Theron level of driven, ambitious women but it seems like he really wanted Suzie Homemaker, as someone said above.
There has been more news recently about how even liberal men want women to handle most of the housework and childcare, and yeah I think Ryan Reynolds is one of the guys who definitely wants to come off liberal but still wants a very traditional wife and views the domestic sphere as women’s work. Ick.
To be clear, I’m not shaming BLAKE for wanting to do whatever she wants, I am shaming RYAN for the image of a progressive man when in reality he wants to maintain a status quo that clearly benefits him.
Ryan Reynolds is a ham. I really think the comment about begging her to sleep with him was meant to be a joke.
Ok so the details about using a tear stick and sob story were exaggerated for an effect, but how is it *ever* appropriate to pressure a woman to have sex with you? I guess I don’t see any context in which that’s comical. What’s the joke?
I just listened to this podcast and it was very clear Ryan was 100% not serious about the begging to sleep with him and faking tears. They were talking about what their “first moves” on a date are and Jason Bateman had just told the group about his movie theater “first move” and the guys were very impressed and telling him how smooth it was, so Ryan came back with his “tears” for a funny contrast as to how not smooth he is.
Oh what’s Jason’s move??
@Calypso
You don’t understand sarcasm, do you?
Lively’s A Simple Plan and The Shallows performances were quite good. But that plantation wedding will always put her out of court for me.
Blake is good in any movie she does. She was great in 2018’s A Simple Plan, with Anna Kendrick.
Age of Adaline will always be top for me.😍
Crud. The movie was “A Simple Favor.” Sorry!
@normades he says at the movies when the girl was sitting next to him he stretched out both arms and put them on the back of both chairs next to him, including hers, so it looks like he’s just stretching back relaxing, then 5 minutes later he uses the arm to scratch his leg and leaves his arm on the girl’s chair and then boom, he’s got his arm around her. He referred to it as 9th grade stuff and Ryan called him the Fonz, lol. Jason asked Ryan if his first move was as good as that and Ryan starts with the tears thing. It was all very much a big bit for them.
Yeah they are wonderful together and you can tell they truly enjoy each other BUT this is revisionist history. I read about this story awhile ago, Blake was with Penn Bagdley and Ryan was still married to Scarjo. The rumors at the time were that their marriage was on the rocks and that they had a lot of chemistry on set and began having an affair. They went on a double date with their significant others and that was it. Both relationships disintegrated quickly and then 2 minutes passed BOOM they were dating and married quickly.