Given that nine months of her year is taken up shooting Gossip Girl, Blake Lively has to be very choosy about the one film a year she is able to make. This year the actress has joined the superhero bandwagon, playing Carol Ferris in The Green Lantern.
The film stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, the first human to be invited to join a group of immortals charged with using willpower to protect the universe. Ferris is the VP of Ferris Aircraft and Hal’s long-term love interest.
She becomes the super-villain Star Sapphire.
The 23-year-old actress, it seems, is trying to broaden her following away from the prominently female audience of Gossip Girl, in which she plays an Upper East Sider, Serena van der Woodsen, who is trying to change her wild ways.
She is earmarked to be one of the big stars of the coming decade, and director Martin Campbell, who directed Casino Girl, has admitted that Warner Brothers were very keen that he should cast the tall, leggy star opposite Reynolds.
Despite all talk of career trajectories and fanbase, Blake insists her choices are made through far simpler criteria and when asked about playing in a comic-book film says: “It’s not really a suitable question because the decisions I make on parts come from a more emotional place. It has to be a character I connect with or someone I can have empathy with.”
The actress also adds that it helps if the part is not like her character on Gossip Girl, “I think it’s important to play different roles because you want to challenge yourself; you want to experience new things and never get in a rut. When you are in a TV show, you play the same character every day, and so when you get the chance to play something different it’s much more exciting because it’s not like you are going from film to film.”
In last year’s The Town she played a poor single mother from the wrong side of the tracks. Blake has a six-season contract with Gossip Girl and, having just completed season four, is happy when she can refute the claim that in real life she is just like Serena.
“I wear pretty clothes and live in New York so people think I'm very similar to her; they see her talk and interact in their homes once a week and they probably assume that is who I am, but it’s not me.” Instead she insists she’s far more homely, preferring to cook and go on walks. She also claims to be great at decorating, although she doesn’t have much chance to do it.
Nonetheless, Blake Lively is a girl who lives up to her name. On both occasions I’ve met her she has been easy to chat to and seems to enjoy the benefits that come with appearing in one of the most popular shows on television. As she walks in she looks immaculate in a dress and high heels.
When commented on, she explains: “But none of it is mine. It’s nice to play dress-up, it’s like being a little girl and putting on make up and outfits. I grew up in Burbank (California) and I love living in New York City so much (because of the shopping) and I now have a way better wardrobe.”
One of the downsides to fame is that she has become the focus of paparazzi. The latest gossip swirling the internet has linked her with Leonardo DiCaprio after a picture of them walking in Italy was taken two weeks ago . A couple of months ago the rumour mill had her attached to Ryan Gosling.
It seems that life is imitating art as tongues get wagging on every occasion she is out with a beau, no matter what the nature of their relationship.