Why Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman's Encounter With This A-List Pop Star Was Like 'Meeting Royalty'

Moviegoers are excited about the July 26 release date of Deadpool & Wolverine, and Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds hope fans are hyped about a particular scene they worked hard on. They wanted to use Madonna’s 1989 hit song, “Like a Prayer,” but they had to pitch the pop star to get her approval — and they were quite nervous. 

Telling Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show on Friday, July 19, the dynamic duo, along with director Shawn Levy, revealed how it went down. “It did involve a personal visit to Madonna, where we showed Madonna the sequence where ‘Like a Prayer’ would be used,” Levy began, per People. 

Reynolds then chimed in, “Also, let’s preface it with the fact that they don’t license — that Madonna doesn’t just license the song, particularly that song. “It was a big deal to ask for it and certainly a bigger deal to use it. We went over and met with her and sort of showed her how it was being used, and where, and why.”

Levy felt that meeting the Material Girl was like “meeting royalty” while Reynolds admitted that he asked Madonna’s team how to address her. “Like am I allowed to just say, ‘Madonna?'” he joked. “Like, ‘Hello Madonna, I’m Ryan.'”

The 65-year-old artist even “gave a great note,” according to Reynolds. “She watched it, and I’m not kidding, [she said], ‘You need to do this.’ And damn it, if she wasn’t like spot on.” As the director of the anticipated summer blockbuster, Levy made sure to head right into “a new recording session within 48 hours to do this note. … It made the sequence better.” 

Reynolds and Jackman aren’t the only celebrities who found the successful artist intimidating. Julianne Moore worked with Madonna on 1993’s Body of Evidence, and she revealed how “scared” she was of the superstar. “She was [a method actor at] that time because she was playing the girlfriend, and I was playing the wife. We were supposed to be enemies,” Moore said on a 2015 episode of Watch What Happens Live. “She’s always been very nice to me other times. This was just on this movie, so I was very scared of her.”

Even Taylor Swift was “so scared” to meet Madonna in 2015 at the Grammy Awards. Madonna had praised the then-25-year-old singer on the red carpet ahead of Swift’s entrance. “Stop, I will pass out! You can’t, don’t be lying,” she told Access Hollywood, via AZ Central, after they shared the compliment. “Oh my God, I’ve been so scared to meet her, because it means too much to me.” Madonna is a trailblazer in the entertainment industry, and she’s living up to legendary status to even the A-listers in Hollywood.

Before you go, click here to see Madonna’s best VMA fashion photos over the years.