Although Taylor Swift is gearing up to drop her next re-recorded album, which she previously revealed was going to be Red, Ryan Reynolds is reflecting on something she did over a year ago.
Back in July 2020, Taylor released her album folklore, which included some tracks that namedropped some names close to the singer’s heart.
In case you didn’t know, the characters in “Betty,” “Cardigan,” and “August” – James, Inez, and Betty – are named after Ryan and Blake Lively’s three daughters.
So, how does the father-of-three feel about his daughters’ names being immortalized in a Taylor Swift song?
“The names are the names of our kids, but you know, we trust her implicitly,” Ryan shared during an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show Thursday (August 5). “She’s very sensitive to any of that stuff. And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids’ names.”
The three songs tell the story of a teenage love triangle. While the characters’ names are based on Blake and Ryan’s kids, their personas – James the high school boy who breaks Betty’s heart; gossip girl Inez; and Betty, who James cheated on – have nothing to do with them. The real James is just six years old, Inez is four, and Betty is only turning two.
However, Ryan considers Taylor paying homage to their daughters an “honor.”
“We thought it was pretty, pretty damn amazing,” he said. “We still do. You know, I still walk down the street and shake my head thinking, ‘I can’t believe that happened.'”
The kids also learned what their Auntie Taylor did – eventually.
“We surprised them with it. Yeah,” Ryan dished.
“They didn’t know. They had no idea,” he continued, jokingly adding, “We don’t tell them anything. We find they’re most compliant if you offer them no access to outside information.”
As for Taylor, she had fans buzzing on Thursday when she dropped a vault teaser for her upcoming re-recorded album, cluing fans in on her collaborators and vault tracks.
“*presses post* *cackles maniacally* Level: casually cruel in the name of being honest,” she captioned the video, which showed jumbled letters escaping from a vault that fans have deduced pertain to details about the Red (Taylor’s Version).
On Friday (August 6), Taylor went on social media to confirm the names of her feature artists – Ed Sheeran; Chris Stapleton; Phoebe Bridgers; and Mark Foster – as well as the titles of her re-recorded “from the vault” tracks – “Ronan”; “Better Man”; “Nothing New” featuring Phoebe Bridgers; “Babe”; “Message in a Bottle”; “I Bet You Think About Me,” featuring Chris Stapleton; “Forever Winter”; “Run,” featuring Ed Sheeran; “The Very First Night”; and “All Too Well” 10-minute version.
“I can’t express my gratitude enough to these artists for helping me bring these songs to life,” wrote in the caption. “I can’t wait til we can dust off our highest hopes and relive these memories together. We’ll also be making a bunch of new ones too, since Red (Taylor’s Version) includes so many songs you haven’t heard yet. Til then, I’ll be counting down and picturing it all in my head. In burning red.”
Red (Taylor’s Version) is slated to drop on November 19.
