Blake Lively on the cover of Marie Claire UK

Blake Lively on new film with Ben Affleck

We talk about her latest film, The Town, starring and directed by Ben Affleck

Without any knowledge of her Gossip Girl CV (he supposedly thought she was fresh out of acting class), Affleck was so impressed by her audition that he rewrote the part of Krista, a drug-addicted single mother and ex-girlfriend of Affleck’s character in The Town, especially for her.

Blake Lively on cooking and staying at home

Despite her natural warmth and cosy front – she’ll insist later how she prefers cooking to going out, (‘That’s my true talent, acting pays the bill’)

Blake Lively on Gossip Girl

‘I’m on a very commercial show so the last thing I want to do is a commercial movie,’ she expands. ‘I wanna take risks, I don’t wanna play it safe. I mean, I could probably make more money if I did more commercial projects. It would be nice to buy an apartment but I’m 22 and I don’t need to yet.’ [She currently shares her rented abode with boyfriend, Penn.]

How long are you signed up for? ‘We have six-year contracts but who knows how long TV shows ever run. They don’t always go the full term contracted… We’re in season four.’

Blake claims she knew the instant she read the first Gossip Girl script that, ‘Whoever does this is not going to be able to walk outside of their house.’

Blake Lively on Penn and being famous

Do you ever Google yourself?

‘No,’ she almost sneers at the idea. ‘Why? I mean, I’m with myself all of the time. Why would I want to see myself on the internet? I can look in the mirror. I think it’s destructive.’

All she’ll say about Badgley is that, ‘At the end of the day, you’re just in any relationship. How does anybody go to work every day and come home? You just do it and it either works or it doesn’t.’ Then she reminds you of how much of a homebody she is: ‘You know, I don’t have very many friends that are actors, the ones that I do have are people I’ve worked on films with for months. I don’t go around collecting people for my BlackBerry because I want to have phone friendships.’