BREAKING NEWS: Ryan Reynolds Smiles in First Public Appearance Since Blake Lively Filed Complaint Against Justin Baldoni.giang

Ryan Reynolds is stepping out for the first time since Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni.

The actor-producer, 48, was a presenter at this year’s National Board of Review Awards gala on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at New York City’s Cipriani 42nd Street. Wearing a grey jacket and white shirt, the Deadpool & Wolverine star was on hand to introduce honoree Wicked, which the National Board of Review named the best movie of 2024.

“Wicked is indeed wicked,” Reynolds said of the film in his speech. “It dares to center on two powerful women. It examines a nuanced, complex relationship which has resonated with people for over two decades on stage. Stories about women seem to be held to a different set of standards, and that is to say that they’re often held to the standards women are held to in life. You must be perfect. You must must hide your strength. You must shape-shift or placate. But Donna Langley and Universal, they know where and with whom to place their trust, and it paid off in this film.”

Reynolds and his wife Lively, 37, have maintained a low profile in the weeks since Lively filed a Dec. 20 complaint against her It Ends with Us costar-director Baldoni, 40, and others, including several of his producing partners and publicists, alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign against her.

Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has called the claims “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” and the Jane the Virgin star, his production company Wayfarer Studios, business partners and public relations team subsequently sued the New York Times on Dec. 31 for $250 million over their article about Lively’s allegations against him.

That same day, the actress-producer escalated her own legal action by officially filing a federal complaint against Baldoni’s company and others.

In her initial Dec. 20 filing, Lively claimed Baldoni exhibited “disturbing” and “unprofessional” behavior on set that led to a “hostile work environment.” Lively’s complaint includes accusations that Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath entered her trailer “uninvited” while she was undressed or “vulnerable,” alleges Baldoni “suddenly” pressured her to “simulate full nudity” in a birth scene and “improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved.”

Her complaint claims that in the aftermath of the experience and the alleged smear campaign against her, Lively “has suffered from grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety” and said Reynolds “too, has been affected mentally, physically, and professionally by his wife and children’s pain,” while noting “the impact on their young children, who have been traumatized and emotionally uprooted in ways that have substantially impacted their well-being.”

Baldoni’s legal team has strongly denied Lively’s claims. Baldoni’s lawsuit against the Times claimed no smear campaign was executed, alleging it was the actress “who engaged in a calculated smear campaign” and that the Times used “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”

Among Baldoni’s accusations in his Times lawsuit is an allegedly contentious meeting with producers at Lively and Reynolds’ New York City apartment in January 2024, soon before filming was set to resume after industry guild strikes ended.

While Lively’s complaint claims the “all hands” meeting “was convened to address the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production,” Baldoni’s lawsuit alleges that Reynolds “launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni in what Baldoni later described as a ‘traumatic’ encounter, stating he had ‘never been spoken to like that in his life.'”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Last August at the It Ends with Us New York City premiere, Lively told E! News that Reynolds had written a scene in the movie. “We help each other,” she said at the time. “He works on everything I do; I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his.”

Reynolds and Lively last stepped out together in early December to support Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande at a screening of Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: Part One. The movie musical topped the National Board of Review’s honoree class with prizes for best film and director, as well as the NBR Spotlight Award for the “creative collaboration” between the actresses behind Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.