Ryan Reynolds has shed light on a tense moment with wife Blake Lively by revealing a rare behind the scenes exchange that took place between the pair over work.
The 48-year-old actor is the midst of a nationwide tour to bring the upcoming documentary, John Candy: I Like Me, to theatres in various cities across the US.
When speaking to the audience at the State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick on September 25, he mentioned how difficult it was to get Bill Murray to take part in the Colin Hanks’ directed documentary and how it led to a tense moment in his marriage.
Ryan, who’s a producer on the film, joked that there could’ve been a separate documentary about trying to get an interview with Bill Murray because he struggled to get a hold of him.
Eventually, he got his number from ‘a friend of a friend of a friend’ and joked that the 75-year-old’s voicemail is a ‘Greek shipping company.’
He told the audience, “Hey Bill, Ryan Reynolds here. I’m making a documentary about John Candy. I’m just hoping I could pick your brain. I’ll come to you; I’ll do whatever it takes.”‘
Ryan Reynolds brought up a tense moment with his wife Blake Lively during his John Candy: I Like Me tour in New Brunswick, New Jersey on September 25
Blake was not in attendance at the event, but Ryan couldn’t help but mention her during the hour-long Q&A when speaking to the other guests on stage
The Deadpool actor revealed Bill Murray caused a little argument between him and Blake
The Deadpool star went on to say he left about ’40 messages.’
Continuing the story, Ryan shared, ‘Funny, I’m on my way to some gala thing and I rarely go to a fancy tuxedo [event]. I’m there with my wife and we’re about to walk in and my phone buzzes, and I look at it. It says Bill Murray and I go, “Bill Murray!”
Lowering his voice as if he was re-enacting whispering to Blake, 38, he continued, ‘She goes, “We have to go in!”
‘I’m like, “F**k you!” he revealed, spilling the derogatory insult he said to his wife.
It is unclear which gala Ryan was referring to and around what date the exchange took place.
The audience then erupted in laughter and Ryan continued his story of his initial phone call with Bill Murray and how it ended with the Ghostbusters star saying he’ll think about the documentary and get back to him.
The action star noted that he left ‘another 40 messages,’ as he recalled being ‘desperate’ at that point since he was ‘running out of time’ to wrap filming.
His final plea was a video message to the A-list actor as he was resting in his apartment. According to the actor, one of his daughters started climbing on his head and his son started screaming.
Ryan enlisted his son, who is now two years old, to also make a plea to Bill and ask him to do the documentary.
Ryan recalled attending a gala with Blake and right before they went inside, he finally got a phone call from Bill Murray (pictured at the Time100 Gala in April 2025 in New York City)
Ryan revealed he told his wife, ‘F**k you!’ when she demanded they go inside the gala and he insisted he needed to take the call from Bill Murray about his upcoming documentary
The usually happy couple have been caught on camera in tense moments in the past (pictured in New York City in April 2025)
‘I said, “If you say no to a child like that, I don’t know what kind of monster you are.”
Bill, he remarked, got back to him ‘two seconds later,’ after he sent the video message and said to him, ‘”What do you need from me for JC (John Candy)?”‘
Ryan and Blake, who celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary on September 9, share four kids together: James, 10, Inez, eight, Betty, five, and Olin, two.
Apart from Bill, the documentary features interviews with other stars who knew John Candy or worked with him, including Martin Short, Steve Martin, Macaulay Culkin, Tom Hanks, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara and Conan O’Brien.
Also during the ‘Evening with Ryan Reynolds & Friends,’ the Canadian actor brought up working on the Deadpool franchise and how many scenes were inspired by movies that John Candy starred in, including Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
He even pushed for one joke – in reference to the late actor – to go into one of the Deadpool films and said his wife Blake also pushed for him to get his way.
‘My wife’s like, “The man asked him for one thing – give him that one thing!”‘ he said.
Ryan said that he loved John’s The Canadian Mounted book so much that he pays $5,000 out of pocket each time he uses it in his films since Paramount owns the rights to Plane, Trains and Automobiles, where the book is initially featured.
Ryan joined John Candy’s son Chris (left) and Daniel Pasternack from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (right) at ‘An Evening with Ryan Reynolds & Friends’ at State Theatre New Jersey
The trio was also joined by The Tonight Show writer Steve Higgins (second from left)
Joined on stage by John’s son Chris Candy, The Tonight Show announcer Steve Higgins and NYU Tisch School of the Arts professor Daniel Pasternack, Ryan did not mention anything that had to do with his wife’s legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
However, he did discuss mental health, a topic that is touched upon in the John Candy: I Like Me documentary, which is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video starting October 10.
Ryan’s wife Blake sued her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment in December 2024 and accused him and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, of orchestrating a smear campaign against her. She also claimed she experienced ‘severe emotional distress’.
He shortly after sued her for defamation and extortion, but the $400 million lawsuit was dismissed in June 2025.
Ryan has been supporting Blake throughout the Gossip Girl star’s ongoing legal battle with It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni (pictured)
In May, Lively voluntarily agreed to withdraw her infliction of emotional distress claims, according to her attorney.
A few days later, lawyers for Justin and Wayfarer filed a motion to compel Lively to provide her medical and mental health care records, to prove she experienced distress, according to court filings. His lawyers also asked for the emotional distress claims to be dismissed with prejudice so they could not be refiled.
However, the judge ruled that Blake does not have to provide her medical records to the court following the withdrawal of the claims of emotional distress.
Ryan has been supporting Blake throughout the ongoing federal case, which is scheduled to go to trial in March 2026.
