Ryan Reynolds on His Sweet Birthday Tribute to Wife Blake Lively (Exclusive)

Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh are dishing on “Mayday,” their action-packed buddy comedy about a U.S. Navy pilot who forms an alliance with an eccentric ex-KGB agent. 

 “Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi spoke with Ryan and Kenneth about bonding over their love of soccer while filming the movie.

Ryan shared, “That was the thing where you just sort of like, you know, you’d hear them go, ‘Guys, guys, guys, we just called action. We should get back to the scripted words instead of the football words.’”

Kenneth added, “We got caught up in sort of the little micro details of, you know, certain plays in certain games.”

Along with praising Kenneth’s “vast” knowledge of the game, Ryan added, “He is one of the best people I’ve ever met, like, just a good human being.”

“Kenneth has directed so many movies, written so many movies. I mean, just been in the inner guts of it all. He understands the military precision of it,” Reynolds added. “The idea that, like, telling a story is about sharing and moving and being vulnerable with other people and really, like, tapping into every expertise on the set.”

Kenneth also opened up about prepping for all the action, saying, “You have to be ready. In my case, you have to stretch, stretch, stretch so you can practice and you get into the choreography, which is great… You also do knock your knees and your elbows and all the rest and you’ve gotta get up and get on with it.”

He added, "For a man of a certain age to be asked to do something like that, it's a big thrill."

Ryan raved about Kenneth, saying, “He was spectacular at it… It was phenomenal to get a front-row seat to him, watching this guy just kick ass in every square inch of that frame. It was really wonderful to see when an action star can kind of be born and leapfrog over the old and new guard in a way."

Reynolds joked, "Finally, he's tiring of this Shakespeare stuff, and he's like, 'I need to go mutilate ass in a movie for 90 minutes,' and that's what he does."

Reynolds was promoting the movie just after celebrating Blake Lively’s birthday. Mona mentioned the sweet tribute he shared to his wife on Instagram and said he was setting the bar high for husbands!

"I don't know if all the guys are taking notes," Ryan laughed. "An old married guy says 'Happy birthday.'"

Ryan noted it's one in a slew of family celebrations coming up! He said, “We have a succession of birthdays that all happen in, like, August, September, October, December… You just don’t pop the balloons, you just put them away.”