From the Magazine Digital Covers Ryan Reynolds Opens Up About Using Mariah Carey's Song 'Fantasy' in 'Free Guy' : 'I Am a Huge' Fan "I got to speak with Mariah and talked to her a little bit about how much of an engine and an agent of progress that this song had been in terms of our creative process," said Ryan Reynolds By Vanessa Etienne Vanessa Etienne Vanessa Etienne is an Emerging Content Writer-Reporter for PEOPLE. People Editorial Guidelines Published on August 5, 2021 10:28AM EDT Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images (2) Ryan Reynolds is such a big fan of Mariah Carey that he couldn't help but put her music in his latest film. The action-packed trailer for Free Guy features Carey's 1995 hit song "Fantasy" and Reynolds, 44, told Variety that the song appears in the film often, serving as the "engine of the movie." "I am a huge Mariah Carey fan," Reynolds said during an interview at film's premiere on Monday. "It really was one of those weird things that happened naturally. I write to music anyway, and I initially put a song in the script by The Outfield called 'Your Love.' It's an old '80s tune. It's great, but it just didn't have that epic scale I was looking for. And then 'Fantasy' just came on my playlist and everything clicked in." Ryan Reynolds Realizes He's Just a Video Game Character in Action-Packed Trailer for Free Guy The Deadpool star also shared that prior to using the song in the film, he got in touch with the Grammy winner, 51, proving to be a strong member of the "Lambily" — the name for Carey's fandom. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday. "I got to speak with Mariah and talked to her a little bit about how much of an engine and an agent of progress that this song had been in terms of our creative process and the scripts," he told the outlet. "She's just been awesome about it." The big-budget comedy follows Guy (Reynolds), a bank teller who lives in Free City and has everything he could possibly want — except love. Directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum), Reynolds also stars alongside Taika Waititi, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Keery, and Utkarsh Ambudkar among others. Reynold's Free Guy hits theaters on Aug. 13. Close