“And she gave a great note,” says Reynolds, who called hanging with the Queen of Pop “one of the great thrills of my life.”

Let the choir sing! Ryan Reynolds has shared how he got approval from Madonna to use her 1989 single “Like a Prayer” in Deadpool & Wolverine.

The actor explained at a recent SiriusXM Town Hall that he and the movie’s director, Shawn Levy, had a “personal meeting with Madonna” to show the pop icon the sequence in which the song would be used in the film.

“Also, let’s preface it with the fact that they don’t license — Madonna doesn’t just license the song, and particularly that song has not been licensed,” Reynolds pointed out. “So 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 showed her how it was being used and where and why.” Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and madonna

Levy added that it felt like the pair were “meeting royalty” when they hung out with the singer to discuss getting her sign-off.

“I even asked someone who worked with her — I was like, ‘Am I allowed to just say Madonna?’ Like, ‘Hello, Madonna?'” Reynolds recalled before answering himself jokingly, “‘I’m f—ing Ryan.'”

He continued, “That was one of the great thrills of my life.”

Reynolds also revealed that, in addition to letting them use the track in the movie, Madonna — who has directed films like 2011’s W.E. — gave them some feedback on how to make the scene better. “And she gave a great note,” he recalled. “My God, she watched it and, I’m not kidding, just was like, ‘You need to do this, this, and this in this moment.’ And damn it, if she wasn’t like spot-on and right.”

Levy said they quickly sprung into action to make her vision a reality. “We literally went into a new recording session within 48 hours to do this one note,” he said. “She had only one note, and it was a great note, and it made the sequence better.”

Madonna is just one of many pop stars featured on the very eclectic Deadpool & Wolverine soundtrack, which also includes songs from *NSYNC, Avril Lavigne, and… Hugh Jackman? Yes, Wolverine himself lends his vocals to the album on “The Greatest Show,” a tune from his 2017 film The Greatest Showman. 

Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 26. Watch Reynolds and Levy discuss meeting Madonna in the clip above.