Here’s my whole Ryan Reynolds interview. WAY longer than in the paper. If you’re passionate about this guy, this is my Valentine to you. And yes, he is that cute.

In the Valentine’s Day release “Definitely, Maybe,” Ryan Reynolds plays a newly divorced advertising executive who finds himself on an extended flashback to his youth when his 10-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) demands an unusual bedtime story, the tale of how he met and married her mother (yes, like the TV show, but much shorter). The candidates are played by Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks and Isla Fisher.

Whose first name, by the way, is definitely pronounced Eye-La. Reynolds corrected us when we said Is-La. We also learned a few things about him: He’s an admirer of Jimmy Stewart; he wears a vintage pocket watch on a chain that looks like something Stewart would have owned; spending half his life acting has killed his visual reflexes to the point where he barely seems to squint in the sun. Also, if you are going to ask about Scarlett Johansson, his alleged fiancée – replacing Alanis Morissette, his former fiancee – try to slip her in subtlety because this guy would rather talk politics than the personal.

Q: My nephew loves “Van Wilder” so much he demanded I watch it with him. I kept thinking about him during “Definitely, Maybe.”
A: (Laughing) He’d be so horrified
Q: It’s definitely more of woman’s movie.
A: I thought that too when I was shooting it, but now I’ve seen the reactions from men and they are so incredible. It’s ostensibly romantic comedy but told from a male perspective, so I think it’s something that a lot of guys can relate to. I think it explores an interesting topic which is that for a lot of men, when it comes to meeting the one, it’s a question of When, and for women it’s a question of Who. And for a lot of guys I think they’re finding it fascinating, to be watching the movie thinking that’s me, I went through this.
Q: I don’t think I’ve ever heard a guy articulate that, although we women sit around talking about that all the time. It’s like a switch goes off for men. Did the film help you develop this theory or did you have it before?
A: Oh, in every act of the film there’s something about this. That was one of its drawing points, definitely. The other was the fact that it was a romantic comedy but it was completely unpredictable, something I had never seen or heard about before. Its this romantic whodunit kind of film.
Q: But have you seen ‘How I Met Your Mother?’
A: I’ve heard about but I’ve never seen it.
Q: The movie opens in 1992, with your character playing an idealistic young volunteer working for the Clinton campaign, and as his life unfolds, so does the Clinton era, with particular emphasis on the negatives. I seriously kept thinking the Hillary Clinton campaign will be toast if this movie is big.
A: I’m sure they would be upset if it was coming out before Super Tuesday. But yeah, we relive that in the film like no one’s business. It’s right there in all of its horrifying glory.
Q: It was indeed horrifying to revisit. So much so it might make even a Hillary supporter want to run out and vote for Barack.
A: I didn’t think it vilified the Clintons as much as it examined the disillusionment of young people, young idealistic people who really felt like that was their President. I think it really makes you want to run out and vote for true change. For me the scariest thing in politics right now is two families running the white house for three decades.
Q: But at least one of them came from nothing
A: Oh yeah, he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Listen, I think Bill Clinton was a fantastic president. Did he handle the scandal well? No, not at all. But if you look at his track record, if you look at the economy, he went miles, not inches, leaving a surplus like that.
Q: On set did you discuss what impact this movie might have?
A: We were shooting it a year ago, and Barack Obama wasn’t even on the radar, it was really kind of a Hillary question. We shot in Brooklyn and we set up this building to look like in 1992, the Bill Clinton headquarters and people would walk in off the street to volunteer thinking it was Hillary’s campaign. So it was definitely something very much within our consciousness. But we had no idea that life would imitate art in this way. We have this character in the movie who wants to be first black president as well, Derek Luke’s character. Now we’re all sitting around going wow, this is a well timed film.
Q: Now can you vote here?
A: No, I’m Canadian, I can’t vote. I’ve got residency, just not citizenship. It’s not a question of if, it is a question of when. I’m eligible for it as of this year. So this coming summer I’ll apply for it.
Q: Do you still spend much time in Canada?
A: I used to go back and forth a lot more than I do now. I had a house there up until about a year ago, but now I’m exclusively in Los Angeles and New York.
Q: It’s probably silly, but I always feel kind of sorry for celebrities, being just nomads, seemingly without a home base. It seems like you’re all always selling houses you’ve barely lived in.
A: There is that. But celebrities are a certain type of people. They are probably a bit more restless. They are also exposed to a tremendous amount of stimuli, like flashing light bulbs, the paparazzi issue and just the amount of attention they get. It’s got to be a pretty weird type of scene to try to navigate your way through in a healthy way. I really try to stay away from that stuff as much as possible.
Q: I do see stuff about you on the trashy web sites I visit though. You are a presence.
A: I guess so, yeah, you can’t avoid it. But not to the extent, when someone has that crush of media out in front of their house all day. Where you have 14, 15, even 50 paparazzi teeming away outside your house, I think there is something to be said about that person, to some degree, welcoming that into their lives. If you don’t want to be photographed eating lunch, don’t go to the [expletive] Ivy. I think there’s a way to curb some of that. But to a certain degree you can’t avoid it, it’s a celebrity obsessed culture, the news media is kind of infotainment now. It’s pervasive, everywhere, it’s inescapable. I’ll be on my motorcycle and stop somewhere to pick up something at the store and I’ll look up and I can’t believe that there are four guys in the shooting me from across the street. I just can’t believe that someone does that for a living. These people survey you. You’re under surveillance. It’s pretty violent.
Q: It feels more frenzied now than ever before. Like our culture is actually driving Britney Spears crazy.
A: I think a lot of that has to do with the emergence of the Internet, allowing people to not just be a voyeur but to take part in it now. it’s a much more interactive blood sport now than it used to be. Also you’re dealing with psychological issues. A lot of people are projecting good and bad on celebrities and it’s very easy to do that. To make yourself feel better because you can tear down a celebrity really easily, in print or you can write a blog about them. You can do anything you want.
Q: I’ve seen pictures of you, very grainy ones, from the set of the latest Woody Allen movie, alongside a certain starlet who recently dodged the question of whether she was engaged to you by saying she was engaged to Barack Obama.
A: I’m actually engaged to Mike Huckabee. We’re taking things really slowly right now.
Q: Is it only because he lost the weight?
A: Yeah, he’s looking good. He’s fit as a fiddle. He’s generous with his time and affection
Q: But do you think he’s a fan of ‘Van Wilder?’
A: Oh yes, he’s told me so.
Q: So in a situation like that, when you’re on the lunch line in Spain, are you even aware you’re being photographed?
A: I’m not aware of anything. I don’t pay attention to any of those things. I mean, if I see something while I’m standing in line at the grocery store, then so be it.
I don’t actively seek that stuff out. And certainly not on the Internet, you can go out at night and then the next day if you really want to, be a voyeur to your own life. It’s weird.
Q: I’d say tragic.
A: Well I’m not speaking to the fact that they seek it out, I’m speaking more to the possibility that you can, go out to dinner go have a drink somewhere, do whatever it is that normal people do, and then the next day you can actually log on to the Internet and see where you went. It’s kinda sad.
Q: So all this celebrity stuff seems exhausting. Where is the joy?
A: I love finding a script where some element of it scares me to a certain degree. I love reading a script and finding something that speaks to a side of me I’ve really tried to avoid. I also try to focus on living a full, balanced life outside of show business.
Q: What do you in you real life?
A: I do a lot of trips, a lot of solo motorcycle trips. Like I went across Australia by myself. And this year I was in Africa for three weeks with my friend John August who directed a movie I did called ‘The Nines.’ We went to Malawi TK and spent three weeks there. It was amazing. A friend of mine started this organization called FOMO, which is Friends of Malanje Orphans and she single-handled saved 4,000 kids herself. I went and volunteered at her orphanage. Dug holes and made wells and painted nurseries. They don’t need us to do that necessarily, but it emotionally invests you in it and you leave with kind of feeling that you’re really a part of this and you have an unshakeable care for these people.
Q: I don’t remember seeing photos of you with a paint brush in your hand.
A: But this wasn’t done as one of those benevolent peace keeping missions. I write on Huffington Post sometimes, but I haven’t yet to publish anything on there about this. I love sharing my experience, but it was such a personal experience. And I’m very wary of actors in particular airing out their laundry. I’m very sensitive to that stuff. You see so many actors and you don’t want to know what their religious preference is or who they are dating, you just want to see them on screen. I’m still trying to reconcile that before I do anything with that particularly piece.
Q: Okay, it’s cheesy, but what’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever done? I read on imdb.com that when you first started dating Rachel Leigh Cook, you left the set of some movie to surprise her on her set.
A: Oh that imdb is so wily. Hmmm. Most romantic thing I’ve ever done…
Q: Or that someone has done for you?
A: It’s so hard to say…
Q: Without revealing secret parts of your life? You could change the names when you tell the story, the way your character does in ‘Definitely, Maybe.’
A: Okay, I do have one. I was once on a motorcycle trip in the middle of nowhere in Australia and someone sent a Chinese food dinner, I couldn’t believe this, to the only motel around, which they guessed that I would be staying in. It was the only restaurant around, a Chinese restaurant in the Outback. And they had called ahead and got them to deliver to this seedy little motel on the side of the road. It was there waiting for me in my room and it was still warm. I thought it was pretty romantic.
Q: But if that was the only restaurant in town, presumably you might have made it there on your own?
A: I would have had to, yes, so either way I would ended up throwing up that night.