Ryan Reynolds Praises ‘Genius’ Wife Blake Lively During Innovator Award Acceptance Speech

While Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are known to troll each other on social media all the time, Reynolds struck a more serious tone while accepting the WSJ Magazine’s 2021 Innovator Award on Monday night.

Taking to the stage to collect his trophy at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the “Free Guy” actor made sure to give his wife a special, sweet shoutout.

“I want to thank my wife, Blake,” he stated. “She is a genius. She’s a renaissance woman. And she pushes me in ways I never imagined I’d be pushed.”

Reynolds, 45, and Lively, 34, tied the knot in 2012 after meeting on the set of their movie “Green Lantern” in 2010. The couple share three daughters together; James, 6, Inez, 5 and Betty 2.

Reynolds also spoke to the WSJ for the publication’s November 2021 issue, in which he opened up about his struggles with mental health and overworking himself.

“I tend to bite off way more than I could or should chew. I think maybe it’s just that Canadian sensibility: ‘Well, I said I was going to, so I have to deliver this,’” he said. “I will do that at the cost of my own well-being sometimes.”

“I fixate on things. That’s sort of the engine of anxiety. I lay awake at night, wrapping and unwrapping every possible scenario. I slept at a perfect right angle for so many years,” he continued. “I tend to pave over anxiety with work and, to a lesser extent, achievement. You want to tick boxes sometimes.”

The 45-year-old actor also admitted that he would be taking a “sabbatical” from creating movies in order to be more “present” in his reality.

“These days, my goal is to be as present as I can and not just tick a box just to do it,” he added. “I’m fully embracing and living that right now. It’s been amazing.”

The “Deadpool” actor told Entertainment Tonight in June that his daughters became a big factor in his decision to be more open about mental health in general.

“Part of it is that I have three daughters at home and part of my job as a parent is to model behaviors and model what it’s like to be sad and model what it’s like to be anxious, or angry. That there’s space for all these things,” he stated. “The home that I grew in, that wasn’t modeled for me really. And that’s not to say that my parents were neglectful, but they come from a different generation.”

“Part of that is to destigmatize things and create a conversation around [mental health],” Reynolds added.

“I know that when I felt at the absolute bottom, it’s usually been because I felt like I was alone in something I was feeling. So I think when people talk about it, I don’t necessarily dwell on it or lament on it, but I think it’s important to talk about it. And when you talk about it, it kind of sets other people free.”