4 important reasons why Blake Lively being controversial shouldn’t surprise anyone

By Charlie Sawyer

Published Aug 22, 2024 at 10:43 AM

Reading time: 4 minutes

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Image courtesy of IMDb

I remember when I was 16, I would sit around at school with my friends, dipping our chips into a McDonald’s ketchup pot, and unanimously agreeing that Blake Lively was definitely the most like her onscreen Gossip Girl character, Miss Serena van der Woodsen. Lively was sexy, carefree, independent, and effortless—she oozed chicness and had hair that had extension-obsessed girlies across LA gagged. That is, until recently when half the world, myself included, woke up to the reality that perhaps this Hollywood actor isn’t actually so picture-perfect. Let’s get into the tea of it all.

Welcome back to Explained By a Blonde, a weekly column where I, a habitual user of bleach, attempt to muster up whatever journalistic skills I might possess to try and break down a trending topic of the week in the silliest, girliest way I can. This week, I’m delving into the Blake Lively saga. Over the past few weeks, the 36-year-old has found herself at the centre of several controversies. And it’s gotten so bad that some people are questioning whether or not we should have seen the red flags before…

From seriously questionable interview clips to dodgy past decisions, this is everything you need to know about the ongoing criticism surrounding one of Hollywood’s, and the public’s, favourite actors.

One of the first major controversies that Lively found herself in revolved around her wedding to fellow star Ryan Reynolds. 2012 was a pretty big year for celebrity marriages, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel and Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy. So, it makes sense that Lively and Reynolds also decided that 2012 would be the year they tie the knot.

But, here’s the real question: Why did Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds choose to get married on a former plantation? Yep, that actually happened. Years after the news broke, it was revealed that the couple had selected the controversial Boone Hall in South Carolina for their nuptials, both actors expressed serious regret, calling the ordeal a “giant f*cking mistake.” Lively also announced in an Instagram post that the couple had donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

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2012 clearly wasn’t a great year for Lively as it was also during this time that she used a transphobic slur during an interview with Elle Magazine. Specifically, the actor said: “I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they better be tr*nnies. Because I have some amazing shoes and bags and stories that need to be appreciated.”

To make matters worse, netizens also then found another clip from 2008 where Lively also used the slur, in this context, which was an interview with Nylon Magazine, the actor stated: “If you read the gossip magazines, everybody is dating everyone, everybody hates everyone, everybody has had tonnes of plastic surgery and they’re actually men and tr*nnies.’

Oh, and three’s a charm. 2009 was also a dodgy year for Lively, with the Green Lantern actor once again using this specific transphobic slur, this time in an interview with Allure Magazine: “I feel like a tr*nny a lot of the time. I don’t know, I’m … large? … I feel like a man sometimes.”

PinkNews emphasised how this word dehumanises trans individuals and is widely considered offensive and hateful. Indeed, a lot of Lively’s queer fanbase was disappointed to see the actor use this word so flippantly.

I think we can all collectively agree that Woody Allen is, well, problematic, to say the least, right? Well, apparently Lively didn’t get the message because she worked with the director of Cafe Society in 2016—a decision that did not sit well with a lot of people. 

To quickly recap the once-renowned director’s controversy: Allen was accused of sexual assault by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992. Two investigations subsequently cleared him, but Dylan reiterated the charge in 2014. 

Moreover, the director is married to Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of actress Mia Farrow (Allen’s ex-wife) and musician André Previn. While Allen did not raise Previn, he was involved in her life from an incredibly young age. The entire thing screams creepy.

Lively has always defended Allen, telling the Los Angeles Times: “It’s amazing what Woody has written for women. It’s very dangerous to factor in things you don’t know anything about. “I could [only] know my experience. And my experience with Woody is that he’s empowering to women.” Not an okay take Blake.

Of course, we’ve got to talk about all of the icky moments from the It Ends with Us interviews, especially considering a lot of the most embarrassing moments came from Lively, aka, the film’s leading lady. The film addresses a lot of very dark themes, primarily revolving around the subject of domestic violence and abuse. And while some fans have praised director Justin Baldoni’s sensitive approach, others have called out Lively for being far too flippant about the film’s subject matter.

While I would normally immediately judge this criticism as misogyny in action, I do think in this case there is a lot of validity in people’s complaints. For one, the marketing surrounding the film paints a much lighter and happier picture than the reality of the contents. Indeed Lively’s comment to “grab your friends” and “wear your florals” doesn’t exactly prepare audiences for the movie’s plot.

And then there was the horrifically uncomfortable interview when the actor was asked: “If someone understands the themes of this movie, comes across you in public, and they wanna really talk to you, what’s the best way for them to be able to talk to you about this? How would you recommend they go about it?”

Chuckling to herself, Lively answered: “Like asking for my address, or my phone number, or, like, location share? I could just location share you. I’m a Virgo, so like, are we talking logistics, are we talking emotionally?”

The actor’s jovial and light-hearted response understandably sat weirdly with fans, many of whom felt uncomfortable with Lively not taking the opportunity to properly set the tone ahead of the film’s release.

It’s always hard to please an entire fanbase, and those obsessed with the Colleen Hoover novel were naturally going to be hypercritical at certain stages. However, I will say that having seen the film now, the cast could have definitely done more to prepare audiences.

And can we just take a moment to acknowledge how weird it was for Lively to promote her booze brand t during the press tour? Naming one of the alcoholic cocktails ‘Ryle You Wait’ was straight-up bizarre and overtly inappropriate.

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Interestingly, things have evidently escalated to such a point that Baldoni felt it necessary to hire a crisis PR manager. Specifically, Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group, the individual who represented Johnny Depp during his trial with Amber Heard. No-one quite knows exactly what’s going on behind the scenes but… It might be about to get even messier.

I don’t think that Blake Lively is a bad person, but I think she needs to take serious accountability for both past mistakes and the mistakes she’s continuing to make. Authenticity and honestly in this industry is so integral. Do better Blake.