Blake Lively has joked that she needs paternity tests for her children after husband Ryan Reynolds said her new movie “cured me of my virginity”.

The celebrity couple, who have been married since September 2012, have two daughters – James, three, and Inez, one.

The Deadpool star encouraged fans to see Lively’s movie A Simple Favour with a message on Twitter but left his wife baffled by his message of support.

Arriving at the London premiere of the film at the BFI, she told the Press Association: “I have no idea (what it means). I had no idea he was a virgin, this is so disturbing.

“I need to immediately get paternity tests. It was a big reveal.”

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in 2014
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds (Dennis Van Tine/PA)

In the film Lively stars opposite Anna Kendrick as a mother with a seemingly perfect life who disappears.

She said: “This movie reminds me of one of my favourite films, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, where the plot is incredibly sinister and twisted and dark but the characters are so over the top and so fabulous and so heightened and this is a call back to that kind of film-making.

“It trended out for a while when these big franchise movies (came in) but it’s nice to have a movie that people are liking and people are responding to.

“It did so well this weekend in the States, which we are so happy about and it’s no big existing IP (intellectual property), we aren’t trying to sell you toys.”

Kendrick said it is still unusual for films to star more than one woman, which had limited her chances to perform opposite other actresses.

Anna Kendrick on the red carpet
Anna Kendrick (Ian West/PA)

She said: “I think it’s changing and I hope there is more (films led by women) because I had such an amazing time working with Blake and with Jean Smart, and there are so many amazing actresses out there that I don’t get the opportunity to work with as much because I work mostly with dudes.

“So I really hope the trend continues because then I get to work with some of my favourite people.”

Director Paul Feig, who is responsible for hits such as Bridesmaids, Spy and The Heat, said: “This is an old-fashioned type of movie and I feel like people are really wanting this kind of entertainment. It’s super fun, it goes dark, it goes light and it’s very Hitchcockian that way.

“Not that I’m Hitchcock, trust me! I’m a low-rent Hitchcock, but I think the movie holds up in that way and gives people that fun that they used to have.”

A Simple Favour is released in UK cinemas on September 20.