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

Blake Lively has admitted that she once got a bloody nose while learning to surf as a teenager.

The actress, who tried to learn how to surf at Manhattan Beach when she was 13-years-old, revealed that she ended up with a bloody nose when a wave caught her off guard.

Speaking to Vogue, the 22-year-old said: “I didn’t get on the board and paddle out. I carried the board out, sideways to the surf. I was trying to crawl on the board when I was caught by a wave. I just went spinning and cracked my nose on the hard-packed sand.

“I relaxed for a second, went to the top, and then the board hit me and I ended up with a bloody nose.”

As for her experience scuba diving in the Maldives last year, she added: “It was the most peaceful and tranquil thing. I fell in love with it.”

As for her experience scuba diving in the Maldives last year, she added: “It was the most peaceful and tranquil thing. I fell in love with it.”

Hey everyone!  I know I havent updated in awhile and I’m sorry but I’ve been pretty busy with other sites/real life.  However, I jump back into updating with lots of gorgeous scans of Blake from the most recent issue of Vogue.  She looks absolutely beautiful as always:

Blake Lively shows off her gorgeous gams as Esquire’s February 2010 cover girl, out January 19.

That Penn Badgley is one lucky guy!

The 22-year-old actress talks to the mag about how easy it is to snap into her Gossip Girl character: “I can snap into Serena very easily. The way I dress as Serena is pretty much the way I dress as me. I’m living in New York City, shooting in New York City. I’m in a comfort zone.”

As for her experience filming the upcoming drama The Town with directed by Ben Affleck: “It was crazy.”

As for her sex scene with Ben, Blake shares, “I have a sex scene in this film and that’s never comfortable. You think, ‘Oh, this is going to be so awkward.’ But this scene isn’t supposed to be a steamy one — it’s sort of tragic. … I’m pretty much crying in it.”

(Read More)