From childhood bullying to Hollywood sexism, life hasn't always been easy for Blake Lively — heck, even her breakout role was built off a lie.
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00:00From childhood bullying to Hollywood sexism, life hasn't always been easy for Blake Lively.
00:05Heck, even her breakout role was built off a lie.
00:09Blake Lively was tall for her age when she was young, something her mom used to benefit
00:13her brother. As Lively told Marie Claire in 2009,
00:16"'When I was only three years old, my mom enrolled me in the first grade. My older brother
00:20was supposed to start school, but he didn't want to go alone. So my mom told them I was
00:24six since I was so tall."
00:26Eventually, Lively was pulled out of school because her teacher realized she wasn't as
00:30up to speed as the other kids. Unfortunately, her height also resulted in some difficult
00:35years as she became a target for bullies. In April 2018, Lively shared a snap on Instagram
00:40of herself next to Big Bird from Sesame Street. Alongside the photo, she wrote,
00:45"'Kids used to make fun of me in elementary school by calling me Big Bird because I was
00:48too tall and had yellow hair. Here's to making best buddies with the things that once hurt
00:53you.'"
00:54Blake Lively's name has become synonymous with iconic red carpet looks, and it's no
00:59wonder, given that her mother is a former model who used to make and tailor clothes
01:02for her when she was a kid. As she once told Vogue,
01:05"'She just did that because she was so creative and because she didn't want me to be dressed
01:09in big t-shirts cinched with a plastic clip like all the rest of the kids.'"
01:13However, this passion for fashion came at a cost when Lively enrolled at a new school
01:17as a second grader. The actor recalled,
01:19"'It was the only school where people were just downright mean to me. They would make
01:23fun of my clothes because I dressed differently than the other kids.'"
01:26But despite her childhood bully's unkind words, Lively continued to forge her own style
01:31over the years, and she's done it all herself. As she told Vogue in a May 2022 Life & Looks
01:37segment, she's responsible for all her looks.
01:39"'I don't work with a stylist. I never have.'"
01:42Even during the time she was working on Gossip Girl, Lively would just borrow whatever was
01:45available in the wardrobe department.
01:48By 18, Lively had decided she was going to quit acting and enroll in college. But it
01:52was at this time that she was approached to play the lead in The CW's latest show, Gossip
01:57Girl. When the show premiered in 2007, the cast of up-and-coming actors were catapulted
02:01to fame.
02:02Signing on to play the character may have been the best decision for Lively's career,
02:07as roles began pouring in during and after the show's six seasons. But the actor later
02:11claimed she was sold the show under false pretenses.
02:14During an August 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, Lively revealed that she initially turned
02:20She told the publication,
02:21"...I said, no, I want to go to college. Thank you, though. Then they said, OK, you can go
02:25to Columbia one day a week. After the first year, it'll quiet down. Your life will go
02:29back to normal and you can start going to school. We can't put it in writing, but we
02:32promise you can go."
02:34Unfortunately, there was a reason they couldn't put this agreement in writing. Gossip Girl
02:38blew up, and by the time she was filming the second season, Lively was working 15 to 18
02:43hours a day, nine months out of the year.
02:46When actors take on action-packed movies, they often have to do some serious training
02:50to get into shape. When Lively began filming 2016's The Shallows, she'd just had a baby,
02:55so she began an intensive workout program to lose weight and prepare for the surfing
02:59and stunts she would be performing in the film.
03:02While there is an element of authenticity when actors perform their own stunts in movies,
03:05it can also lead to exhaustion and injuries, both of which Lively suffered while filming
03:10The Shallows. Lively spoke with Entertainment Weekly in June 2016 about the physical toll
03:15the movie put on her, saying,
03:16"...there's a scene where I'm swimming up to the buoy and I crack my face underwater
03:20and my nose is pouring blood and that was real. I thought, I'm going to keep going during
03:24this take unless I pass out. I was in so much pain for a week."
03:28Having your face thrashed against a fake rock is not fun.
03:31In addition to the injuries she suffered, Lively explained that they filmed in both
03:35tanks and in the ocean, with each setting causing its own problems. She said,
03:39"...when we were in the tank, there were so many chemicals my skin would just fall off.
03:43When you're rubbing against these rocks and these buoys, your body is just really taking
03:47a beating."
03:49Lively has been the subject of harsh criticism and rumors over the years. In particular,
03:53her talents as an actor have been torn apart online, while she has also been chastised
03:57for her online commentary. It seems that Lively's learned that you can't please everyone, but
04:02she's tried not to let it get her down.
04:04During a July 2014 interview with Vogue, Lively discussed the unkind things she's read about
04:09herself and how she handles it. She said,
04:11You just have to do what makes you happy, because you'll never get a unanimous vote.
04:15People like to gossip. They bond over it. They don't bond over complimenting famous
04:19people."
04:20Despite her optimistic outlook, the actor revealed that she struggles with what she
04:23reads about herself online during Variety's Seven Secrets segment in April 2017, when
04:28she was asked whether she'd ever Googled herself.
04:30"...I have before, and it's just ended in full depression. So I think it's a good rule of
04:35thumb not to Google yourself, because the internet is not nice."
04:39Hollywood was rocked in 2017 when stories of Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct broke.
04:45Many celebrities spoke out in solidarity about their own experiences, prompting the MeToo
04:49movement to take hold.
04:51Around this time, Blake Lively told The Hollywood Reporter that the news of Weinstein was devastating
04:55to hear, as she'd known and worked with the film producer for years. However, she also
04:59added that it was crucial to listen to the women who were coming out about their assaults,
05:04pointing out that this same situation is also prevalent in every industry.
05:08In October 2017, Lively told the Los Angeles Times about her own experiences with sexual
05:13harassment, recounting a frightening ordeal with her on-set makeup artist. She recalled,
05:17"...he was saying things inappropriately, insisting on putting my lipstick on with his finger.
05:22I was sleeping one night on location and I woke up and he was filming me. I was clothed,
05:26but it was a very voyeuristic, terrifying thing to do."
05:29Lively went on to explain that she had complained to the producers about this for months, and
05:33when they did nothing to remedy the situation, she escalated the issue to her lawyer.
05:38The makeup artist was eventually fired, but as Lively added,
05:40"...our unit production manager wrote him a letter of recommendation because nobody
05:44wanted there to be bad blood."
05:46In 2020, Blake Lively starred in the action flick The Rhythm Section alongside Jude Law
05:50and Sterling K. Brown. She played a woman who seeks revenge on those who orchestrated
05:55the death of her family, marking yet another project in which the actor performed some
05:58of her own stunts. Again, this resulted in Lively hurting herself, but in contrast to
06:03the broken skin she suffered while filming The Shallows, her injury this time around
06:07was more serious and even required a hospital visit.
06:10While promoting the movie on Good Morning America in January 2020, Lively explained
06:14how she hurt her hand during filming.
06:16"...there's like one-shot fight sequences, which is how I shattered my hand. We shut
06:20down for six months. Yeah, my hand basically turned to like feta cheese."
06:24This happened while filming one particular scene when Lively lunged at Jude Law and collided
06:28with his elbow.
06:29"...I, you know, broke some things and dislocated some things and severed a ligament."
06:34Still, it at least gave her something to talk about on the press tour.
06:37"...that's why you guys have to see this movie. I don't know how she feels about it."
06:44If you're a person who struggles with your self-image, it can't be easy if photos of
06:48you always pop up online and in magazines. Over the years, Blake Lively has been transparent
06:53about her insecurities about her body. She even told her fans not to compare themselves
06:57to her while speaking with Harper's Bazaar in April 2018, saying,
07:01"...99.9 percent of the time, the images are photoshopped. I'm guilty myself of being
07:05at a photo shoot and saying, that looks terrible on me, and they're like, we'll fix it."
07:10Lively's insecurities spiked around the time she gave birth. She and her husband, Ryan
07:14Reynolds, have welcomed four children between 2014 and 2023, which means that Lively has
07:19spent a significant amount of time with a pregnant or postpartum body. In February 2021,
07:25she posted a throwback photo of herself on her Instagram story and used the opportunity
07:29to share how she'd been struggling with her body at the time. She wrote,
07:32"...no one had samples that fit me after giving birth, and so many clothes from stores didn't
07:36fit either. It doesn't send a great message to women when their bodies don't fit into
07:40what brands have to offer. It's alienating and confusing."
07:43Lively added that despite her prior feelings, she's now proud of her body, as it created
07:48and sustained her children.
07:50Not only is Ryan Reynolds a talented actor, producer, family man, and doting husband,
07:54but he's written on many of his projects. For example, he has been credited for his
07:58writing on Deadpool and Welcome to Wrexham. But as he revealed on SiriusXM's Just Cagle
08:03podcast with Julia Cunningham in August 2021, Blake Lively has actually contributed to a
08:08lot of his work.
08:09There's a lot of A++ writing that I've done that was actually Blake. That Blake would
08:14jump in, grab the keyboard, and, what about this?
08:17He continued by suggesting that due to inherent sexism in Hollywood, Reynolds often gets credit
08:22for her work.
08:23I will say that a lot of times. She wrote that. Blake wrote that, not me. That was her,
08:28and it's like they still, later on, repeat the story as I wrote it.
08:31While she may not always get enough credit for her work, Lively and Reynolds have gone
08:34to great lengths to support one another's careers over the years. This has been a crucial
08:38element of their relationship, in fact, as they once made an agreement not to take on
08:42projects at the same time as each other in order to prioritize their lives outside of
08:46work.
08:47Blake Lively had a close relationship with her dad, longtime actor Ernie Lively, before
08:52he died in June 2021 from heart-related issues. He and his daughter even appeared together
08:57in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, with Ernie playing Lively's dad onscreen.
09:01Blake has been outspoken about how much her relationship with her family impacts her day-to-day
09:05life, telling People magazine back in 2020,
09:07"...it all goes back to family. It has always been the most important thing in my life.
09:12Everything I do is at the heart of it."
09:13Ernie had previously told People about undergoing heart surgery in 2013, when he became the
09:18first person to have retrograde gene therapy performed on his heart. He said,
09:22"...I woke up the other morning and told my wife, I haven't felt this good in years. I
09:26moved to Utah because of the snow, but I haven't been able to ski. I literally didn't have
09:30the heart to do it. Now I'm excited about living the rest of my life instead of sitting
09:34around."
09:35Lively still hasn't spoken publicly about her father's death, instead opting to mourn
09:38privately. However, she did share a photo of herself and her dad as a tribute on her
09:42Instagram story.
09:44About a week later, on Father's Day, Lively posted another sweet snap on Instagram, this
09:48time of her dad with Ryan Reynolds. She captioned the post simply,
09:51"...my guys."