Blake Lively – biography, photos, facts, family, kids, affairs, height and weight 2020

Blake Lively - biography

Blake Christina Lively is primarily known as the star of the TV show Gossip Girl. It was the role of Serena van der Woodsen that marked the rise of her career. However, the life and work of this exceptional American actress did have and, undoubtedly, will still have many other bright moments and memorable appearances.

Blake Lively’s smile is totally irresistible

Blake Lively – early years

Blake Lively was born in the small California neighborhood of Tarzana. Her parents - Ernie and Elaine Lively - were actors. True, Elaine was never able to become a prominent actress and became a talent agent, while Ernie frequently starred in popular TV shows, even though he mostly played guards and motel administrators. In addition to little Blake, there were four older children in her family (two brothers and two sisters) who, to some degree or another, also connected their lives to the world of cinema.

According to Blake Lively herself, it was her elder brother Eric (known for his leading role in Butterfly Effect 2) who inspired her to become an actress. That is how the 11-year-old Blake started going to film castings and got her first role – the Tooth Fairy in Sandman (1998).

The first film appearance of Blake Lively, Sandman(1998)

Her first job in the film industry was successful. After that, little Blake Lively became a frequent goer to Los Angeles film screenings. She began to take lessons in stage play and tried to learn from the older family members. However, despite the girl’s best efforts, she had to wait seven years for the next movie offer. But it was worth it; very soon, in creative career terms, she outgrew both her brother and her parents.

Blake Lively’s first roles

The film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, released in 2005, was the first famous appearance of the young actress. This was a kind, fun, and inspiring film about the adventures of four young friends (Amber Tamblyn, Alexes Bledel and America Ferrera also got main roles), whose life is changed by magic jeans. The film was received with a bang by the audience and critics, so the actresses immediately signed a contract for a sequel which saw the light in 2007. As for the role of extravagant Bridget, Blake Lively received her first nomination for the Teen Choice Awards for it, as well as recognition and fame. She had started being perceived as one of the most promising actresses in the genre of youth cinema.

Blake Lively in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Blake decided to further develop this role and agreed to play in the youth comedy Accepted with Justin Long in the lead role. Then there was the role in the low-budget horror film Simon Says, which, fortunately for Blake, did not hit the wide screens. But the melodrama Elvis and Annabelle (2007), with her participation, created a real sensation.

Vogue: 73 questions to Blake Lively

Gossip Girl and new peaks of Blake Lively’s career

The history of the project, which literally turned the life of Blake Lively upside down, making her one of the most sought-after beauties of Hollywood, began rather trivially. The creator of the series Lonely Hearts stumbled upon a book by Cecily von Ziegesar. The writer narrated the adventures of students in an elite school, which are closely watched by a blogger that goes by the nickname Gossip Girl.

Gossip Girl: Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen

Initially, the producer imagined the main character – the 20-year-old Serena van der Woodsen – a representative of the golden youth, played by the scandalous Lindsay Lohan, who was in many ways similar to the bad girl Serena. But Lohan refused to participate, so, after long castings Blake Lively was approved for the role instead of her. Many thought Blake was inferior in beauty to the book heroine, but the talent with which she transformed into a spoiled rich girl more than covered all the flaws.

Blake Lively’s make-up in Gossip Girl

The television series premiered in the fall of 2007 on the Canadian channel CTV, but only a couple of months later it began to be broadcast in the USA and Western Europe. By the beginning of the second season, the popularity of the show reached a truly amazing scale. Gossip Girl counted among the TV shows with the largest audience, ahead of many well-known television series in terms of audience size, including Supernatural and The Big Bang Theory.

As the popularity of the TV show grew so did Blake Lively’s fame, who performed the leading role in it. In the three years since the premiere of Gossip Girl, Lively has been nominated for many prestigious awards and won the Teen Choice Awards twice. After the success of Gossip Girl, Blake Lively migrated smoothly from youth comedies and soap operas to Hollywood blockbusters. That’s how, in 2009, she starred in the drama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee alongside Keanu Reeves, Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder and Monica Bellucci.

A shot from The Private Lives of Pippa Lee with Blake Lively

In 2010, the film entitled The Town appeared in the filmography of Blake Lively; this film was subsequently nominated for the Oscar. Blake read the film script right on the shooting set of Gossip Girl and was surprised to see how much the character of the criminal thriller differed from her usual heroines – arrogant bitches and flirty giggles. So, for the sake of pure interest, she decided to give it a try.

Know It All with Blake Lively

On the first casting, she had to play one of the scenes with Ben Affleck. She had to impersonate Krista – a single Boston mother, a drug addict and a prostitute. From the very first words, her stage partner was impressed with her naturalistic Boston accent. What a surprise it was to Affleck when he learned that Blake had lived all her life in California. Not only did Affleck play the main role, but also directed the film, so Blake was approved right away. Although the film never won an Oscar, it did bring Blake the National Board of Review award, as well as the Washington Film Critics Association award.

In The Town Blake Lively played a drug addict and a prostitute

In 2011, the young actress was noted in the films Hick and Savages and played the main female role in the Hollywood blockbuster Green Lantern, which, as it turned out, became fateful for her. But it wasn’t because the action film, based on the Marvel comics, was able to overshadow the image of her character from Gossip Girl. On the set, she met Ryan Reynolds, and, just as the script read, a spark of passion ran between them. However, their relationship was not as simple as it appeared to be at first glance.

For the role in Green Lantern Blake Lively dyed her hair dark

After a necessary break in her work, Blake returned from her leave and began to shoot in new projects with a tripled force. Thus, in 2015, film goers saw her play the main role in the fantastic melodrama The Age of Adaline where Blake, with her characteristic grace, was transformed into an immortal girl in search of her beloved.

Blake Lively in The Age of Adaline

In 2016, Blake Lively starred in the catastrophe movie The Shallows: not even the pregnancy could prevent her from portraying a brave surfer, trapped by a man-eating shark.

In 2016 Blake Lively appeared in the catastrophe movie The Shallows

Then came Café Society, the diametric opposite directed by Woody Allen, in which Blake agreed to play without even reading the script; such was the influence of the great director’s name.

Another interesting role of Blake Lively’s, which came in 2016, is Gina from the drama All I See Is You. She played a woman, blind from birth, who accidentally gets her sight back and discovers new, yet tragic pages of her family life.

Blake Lively: personal life

Up to the age of 17, Blake Lively had never dated anyone. She had more than enough admirers, but according to the girl herself, she was too shy to accept their courtship.

The young Blake Lively had a ton of admirers

The first big love in the life of the actress was her school friend Kelly Blatz. Their relationship lasted for three years – from 2004 to 2007, after which the young people separated due to circumstances that were decided to be kept secret from the public. One of the reasons might have been the start of filming Gossip Girl for which Blake had to move to New York.

Blake Lively and Kelly Blatz, her schooltime love

The next boyfriend of the charming blonde was the actor Penn Badgley - aka Dan Humphrey from Gossip Girl. In the film his hero had a crush on the spectacular Serena; apparently, the actor transferred this attitude onto Blake in real life as well. Yet, three years later, Blake Lively’s filmography began to rapidly fill with new movie appearances, while Penn began to stagnate in his career, the young man felt humiliated and broke off his relationship with the actress whose fame was growing vigorously. After that, Blake was seen in the company of Ryan Gosling: the actress accompanied him to the premiere of Blue Valentine, they were seen in restaurants together several times, but ...

Blake Lively and Penn Badgley dated for three years

Very soon, Blake appeared before the cameras with a new boyfriend, who the paparazzi knew and loved so well. It was the handsome Ryan Reynolds, the star of the psychological thriller Buried and the superhero blockbuster Green Lantern. It was on the set of the last film that they met. It turned out that even while working on the project, some kind of chemistry appeared between them which forced Ryan to forget about the faithfulness to his wife, Scarlett Johannson.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds met on the set of Green Lantern

They came together to the premiere of Green Lantern in March 2011. This gave fans some food for thought and talk, but their relationship seemed to stumble at the very beginning: Blake had an affair with Leonardo DiCaprio, while Reynolds was seen with Charlize Theron.

Blake Lively and Leonardo di Caprio had a short affair

That’s why the news that Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively got secretly married in Charleston (South Carolina) in September 2012, came as a bombshell. It turned out that a couple of months earlier they had bought a cozy family nest worth $2 million in Westchester County, New York.

Wedding photo of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

For the second wedding anniversary, Blake Lively gave her husband the happiest gift - she was pregnant. Up until the birth of the first child, the couple regularly attended high-profile social events, and Blake, who retained her beauty even during pregnancy, invariably delighted the readers of the tabloids with her elegant outfits. In December 2014, the baby girl James Reynolds was born. Unfortunately, the secretive parents chose not to show off any of the newborn girl’s pictures, so the photos of Blake Lively’s and Ryan Reynolds’ first daughter never appeared on the web.

The fans learned about Blake Lively’s second pregnancy in the summer of 2016, and by the end of September the second daughter of Blake and Ryan was born.

Blake Lively now

In 2018 Blake Lively starred in the detective comedy A Simple Favour. This is a story about a blogger mother played by Anna Kendrick, who is investigating the disappearance of a friend.

The actress is also known to be busy filming in the action movie The Rhythm Section, where she will star alongside Jude Law. The release of the film is scheduled for 2019.