Ryan Reynolds Jokes His Daughter, 9, Is Only 'Sort of Okay' After Watching R-Rated Deadpool & Wolverine (Exclusive)

Ryan Reynolds can’t wait to share his new Deadpool & Wolverine movie with fans — including his kids.

The star's daughter James, the oldest of Reynolds’ four children with wife Blake Lively, watched the Marvel movie alongside her dad ahead of its release, and Reynolds exclusively tells PEOPLE that the film’s R-rating came from a place of “authenticity" rather than provocation.

“My 9-year-old saw the movie, and she's sort of okay!” Reynolds jokes of the bonding experience, before adding in all seriousness that his daughter “loved it."

Still, choosing to share the film with James was "just me though," he says. "I'm not telling other parents to do that.”

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Reynolds — who brought Lively and their kids to the film's premiere on Monday night — told the publication that he, too, watched R-rated movies as a child.

Those films “left a huge impression on me because I didn’t feel like people were pulling punches, and it’s been a huge inspiration to so many of the things that I look to make now," he says.

In the case of Deadpool & Wolverine, Reynolds says that the rating wasn’t for shock value but rather something he was really conscious of when writing the film.

“Deadpool and the world that Deadpool was able to inhabit in the other two movies was limitless, so I would say that in this movie, particularly bringing Wolverine over, the R-rating is only used to lay the groundwork for as much authenticity between these two characters as possible,” he says.

“It's not exploited in any way. It's not used to shock people or make some silly set piece just to justify its R-rating," he adds.

And in the spirit of really owning the rating, the Free Guy star says that “it’s so that we can talk the way these two characters should talk, and behave the way these two characters should behave so that th -

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ey are as close to the origins of their comic book ancestry as humanly possible.”

His close friend and costar Hugh Jackman concurs. "You’ve got to tell the story,” says Jackman, who’s dad to Oscar, 24, and Ava, 19.

Over the years, both stars say they've learned to reject the idea of perfection — and it's a lesson they're passing on to their kids.

“I've changed my approach over the years because I used to think a little bit old school. I don't want to burden my kids if I'm feeling vulnerable or scared,” Jackman says. “What I realized is I'm worrying about something, but they don't know what I'm worrying about so it may read to them that they've upset me. So I'm much more open, more honest, even if things didn't work out as I wanted.”

Reynolds, for his part, has learned a thing or two about being honest with his kids when it comes to the idea of failure. 

“What's funny is that I have two of my daughters literally in the other room listening to this right now. Hi, James and Betty!" says Reynolds, giving his kids a shoutout. "I think that it's important they internalize this as well: that being good at anything requires a tremendous amount of sucking. You have to really embrace not being good or even adequate at something right off the bat,” he says.

“Boy, did I stink at this job when I started it, and I just kept working at it and working at it and I will never be in a place where I'm like, 'Nailed it. Perfect. I'm great,'" says the actor. "You're always working.”

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Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 26.

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