The ‘Deadpool’ star shared in an interview that he and Lively want their children to “empathize with other people and other kids”

Ryan Reynolds is opening up about how he and wife Blake Lively keep their kids out of the spotlight — and as humble as possible.

Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter on Friday, Dec. 13, Reynolds, 48, spoke candidly about wanting to give his four kids — James, 9, Inez, 8, and Betty, 5, and Olin, born in 2023 — “as normal a life as possible.”

“I try not to impose upon them the difference in their childhood to my childhood or my wife’s childhood,” he told the outlet, which named him producer of the year for his work in film and TV.

“We both grew up very working class, and I remember when they were very young, I used to say or think, like, ‘Oh God, I would never have had a gift like this when I was a kid,’ or, ‘I never would’ve had this luxury of getting takeout,’ or whatever,” Reynolds said, referring to his and Lively’s, 37, upbringings.

According to the Deadpool & Wolverine actor, he didn’t want his childhood experiences of wealth and gratitude to impact how his kids live.

“… I realized that that’s not really their bag of rocks to carry,” Reynolds continued. “They’re already very much in touch with gratitude and understanding the world enough to have a strong sense of empathy. Those are the things that I would think [would indicate] we’re doing an OK job — if our kids can empathize with other people and other kids.”

At the same time, he concedes: “…Yes, it’s different.”

“When I was a kid, you would just suck it up, get out of the house and be back by sundown, which I just can’t even imagine now,” he added.

The Welcome to Wrexham star had previously been candid about parenting and how he and Lively raise their kids outside the public eye. Just this week, he told Andrew Garfield during their Variety‘s Actors on Actors conversation that one of the most difficult parts of filmmaking is being away from his family.

“It had been six years since the last one and part of the reason is that it swallows my whole life. You can’t take your hand off the stick all the way through development, through postproduction into marketing and promo, and then you kind of [stop],” he said during the conversation, referring to the gap between Deadpool 2 and the third installment.

As he thought about his kids, Reynolds noted, “I don’t ever want to be an absentee, and I don’t ever want to miss stuff.”

“I, like, kind of die inside when I see their face and they have a competition or they have a sports thing or something and I missed it,” he added.

In July 2024, the star also joked that he and Lively might not be done having kids, telling E! News at the time: “The more the merrier. As many as possible.”