Blake Lively is featured on the April 2009 issue of Marie Claire UK. Interview excepts [Thanks to BlakeLivelyWeb!] I heard you almost turned down Gossip Girl. Apparently you said, ‘If there are pet monkeys in coordinating outfits, that’s not something I’m going to want to be a part of.’
Where did that come from? It’s in the book. One of the male characters, Chuck, gets a pet monkey and they wear matching outfits. How do you stay in control?
I was raised in a wonderful, close family. I was never a wild child so, luckily I don’t feel the desire to go out and go crazy. Why not? I told you! Because I was raised in a really terrific, close family and I’ve never needed to escape anything or to really let myself go by dancing on tables.
Is it true your brother Eric took you to Europe to convince you to become an actress? I was 15, he was 21. It was an amazing trip; he took me to London, Cambridge, because that’s where Harry Potter is shot, Rome, Brussels,
Cologne, Florence and Paris, staying everywhere from five-star hotels to hostels. But every single day I would dread going to lunch with him, because every single day he’d be like, ‘What are you going to do for a living?‘
You’ve said you’ve only kissed three boys in your life. How can that be? How can that be? I don’t know. I didn’t get around too much. Like I said, I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was 17. I grew up in a Southern Baptist family. It was more my grandparents. My mother is a Christian but it was just like she..
It wasn’t like they went to church all the time and were really strict but, you know, my mom was very much a good girl and I was raised in a way I didn’t.. Not that it would be bad to have a boyfriend.
I was really shy at school, too. With boys, I mean, I was really outgoing but there were boys that I would find out later had a crush on me but I was too shy to them. Whatever. I was just being shy.
