Confident. Poised. Stylish. Glamorous. These are the kinds of words typically used to describe Blake Lively. Not shy.

But in fact, it’s true. The Gossip Girl star says she is naturally shy, and it was acting that forced her out of her comfort zone, giving her the confidence – or at least, the illusion of confidence – that’s so critical for someone living in the public eye.

“I’m actually a very shy person – that’s a big secret, so don’t tell,” Lively, 23, reveals in a chat with Ben Affleck in September’s Interview magazine. “But being in [acting] classes pushed me to break out of that a little bit. It’s like nature versus nurture: I’m naturally very shy, but I was brought up in a way where I had to get up and get out of that.”

Affleck directed and stars with Lively in the upcoming heist thriller The Town. In the Interview piece, he remarks on how comfortable she seemed on set, even while filming a sex scene with him on the very first day of shooting.

Lively credits both her upbringing and her training for the maturity that belies her age. “I have a big family, and no one ever treated me like a child,” she says. “They always treated me like an adult, like an equal.”

Her Acting Family

But a lot of it is just keeping up appearances. “With acting, I think half of it is just acting confident. We stand on these red carpets and pose in these dresses, but we’re all only so confident. It doesn’t mean we think we’re great looking or anything. It’s all a facade.”

Lively comes from a family of actors, but says they were all down to earth – they didn’t treat show business as anything special. In fact, Lively jokes she followed in their footsteps for the most mundane of reasons.

“I don’t feel like I ever had any sort of Hollywood upbringing,” she says. “I got to travel and visit my family on set. I got to eat craft service. I actually think that was the reason I got into acting: the free food. I literally remember on my first job being like, ‘Yes! I get to have craft service every day!’ ” (Source)

Magazines: Interview || Photoshoots: Session 2

Born in Tarzana, California, and raised in Burbank, Lively grew up in a show-business family: Her father, Ernie, has had a long career as a character actor; her mother, Elaine, is a talent manager; and her older siblings Eric, Robyn, Jason, and Lori are all current or former actors. (Ed. note: Robyn memorably performed a now somewhat iconic rap in the ’80s film Teen Witch.) Five years ago, at the age of just 17, she made her acting debut alongside Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, and Amber Tamblyn in the sleeper hit The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005), a film about a group of teenage girls who, as groups of teenage girls are wont to do in movies, pass around and each wear a pair of jeans that remarkably fits everyone over the course of one very special summer. Roles in little-seen movies such as Accepted (2006), Elvis and Anabelle (2007), as well as a Traveling Pants sequel (2008) followed.

Recently, though, Lively’s work has taken on a decidedly more ambitious scope. She shared the title role with Robin Wright in last year’s The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Rebecca Miller’s offbeat drama about a woman in the throes of a midlife crisis who recalls her youth as she sets off to rediscover who she is and what she wants (Lively played the younger version of the character). She also spent four months earlier this year in New Orleans playing the female lead in Green Lantern, Martin Campbell’s reimagining of the masked comic-book superhero whose green ring confers its wearer with certain all-consuming powers. (As comic book aficionados know, there have been several Green Lanterns-the one in Lively’s film is played by Ryan Reynolds.)

Read the rest of the interview here

An unlikely winner has emerged in Gossip Girl‘s heated Dan/Serena/Nate triangle: Sam Page!

A Gossip rep confirms that the Desperate Housewives/Mad Men hottie is joining the cast for a multi-episode arc as Serena’s (Blake Lively) new love interest.

Page’s first episode is expected to fall in October. Gossip Girl‘s fourth season kicks off on Sept. 13.

(Source)

While there has been a rumor going around lately we did not want to post anything until we got some sort of official word on it. And now we have.

Uh-oh. If certain reports are to be believed, Blake Lively hopes to leave the Upper East Side in dramatic fashion. So is our girl Serena van der Woodsen doomed because Blake wants to ditch her TV show in favor of a movie career?!

Here’s the scoop on Serena’s alleged swan song, plus the inside scoop on this story from the big boss at Gossip Girl:

According to Heat magazine by way of the TV NZ blog, Lively is trying to persuade Gossip Girl producers to kill off her character in a sweeps-worthy event episode: “Serena’s been the show’s most dramatic character, and Blake thinks she deserves a fitting exit. Execs aren’t convinced they’ll let her go but ideas have been thrown around. Suicide is one, though it’s likely to be an accident.”

Per the report, Blake is not only sick of behind-the-scenes Gossip Girl cast drama but believes that continuing on a television series “doesn’t fit her future plans.” (If the mag is to be believed, Lively’s future plans include becoming a big-screen star, as she appears in the upcoming Green Lantern movie, which made a splash at Comic-Con.)

But we’ve got bad news if you’re on Team Jenny and therefore have reason to hope this news is true: Gossip Girl’s Serena is here to stay!

As a matter of fact, normally tight-lipped Gossip Girl executive producer Josh Schwartz was so taken aback by the false rumors that he hit Twitter to clear things up. “Have to respond,” he wrote just a few hours ago. “No truth to rumors that BL requested to have Serena killed. All is well. GG S4 back on 9/13.”

And there you have it: Blake’s sticking around!

Source)