Ryan Reynolds Was 'Quietly Terrified' About Possibly Raising a Son: 'We Love Having Our Girls'

Ryan Reynolds is explaining why he was briefly worried about the possibility of welcoming a baby boy.

While speaking with Access, the actor, 45, talked about being a dad to three daughters, and why that was his preference. Reynolds shares James, 6, Inez, 5, and Betty, 2, with wife Blake Lively.

"I would not have it any other way," he says, adding, "When we had our youngest, I was quietly terrified it was gonna be a boy because I didn't know, we didn't know. I didn't know anything but girls. I grew up with boys and I was constantly being thrown through walls when there was a perfectly good door 5 feet away."

The star also talked about bonding with his Red Notice costars Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot over the fact that each of them has three daughters. Gadot, 36, is mom to Alma, 10, Maya, 4, and Danielle, 4 months; and Johnson, 49, has Simone, 20, Jasmine, 5½, and Tia, 3.

"But Dwayne and Gal and I, we talk a lot about that, and there is a sort of shared experience there that I think is worth noting. We love having our girls," says Reynolds.

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Reynolds and Lively, 34, have been together since 2010 when they met and starred together in Green Lantern. They wed in 2012 after a year of dating.

Speaking on his upcoming brief break from making movies, Reynolds told PEOPLE (The TV Show!)'s Adrianna Costa at the premiere of Red Notice last week that he plans to spend lots of time with his kids. "We all want to be together during this time. Our kids are still quite young and I don't want to miss it," he said.

"My kids, they're growing up faster than time and space would have suggested, so I want to be there," he added in an interview with Access. "I want to spend some time with them."

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In June, Reynolds told Entertainment Tonight that his family inspired him to use his role as a public figure as a platform for promoting mental health awareness after the actor opened up about his lifelong struggles with mental health on Instagram during Mental Health Awareness Month in May.

"Part of it is that I have three daughters at home and part of my job as a parent is to model behaviors and model what it's like to be sad and model what it's like to be anxious, or angry. That there's space for all these things," said Reynolds.

"The home that I grew in, that wasn't modeled for me really," he added. "And that's not to say that my parents were neglectful, but they come from a different generation."

In his May post, the actor confessed to over-scheduling himself "and important things slip" due to his "lifelong pal, anxiety."

"I know I'm not alone and more importantly, to all those like me who overschedule, overthink, overwork, over-worry, and over-everything, please know you're not alone," he wrote at the time. "We don't talk enough about mental health and don't do enough to destigmatize talking about it."