Blake Lively has played enviable roles from an Upper East Side socialite to a badass shark-attack survivor. She’s married to Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Reynolds and earns constant praise for her sartorial choices. So it’s no surprise we assume she’s got it all. But in an interview for Glamour’s September issue (she graces its cover), Blake reveals it’s not all sunshine and rainbows—in fact, she admits her so-called “perfect life” is not at all what it seems.
“It’s nonsense [to say that]. It simplifies people,” she says. “Not all men, but a subsection of men, have a desire to understand and control women. To do that, you have to paint them into this thing you can wrap your head around. But women are complex.” She adds: “What you see in the media is not real life. The night before an interview, I have complete anxiety: How is this person going to spin me? So when you read, ‘Oh, she’s got a perfect life,’ or ‘Her life is crumbling’—they pick narratives for everyone. And the narratives stick.”
It’s a bold admission from one of the most sought-after actors in the biz (if her upcoming movies—three of them, to be exact—are any indication). But that doesn’t mean she’s unhappy—quite the opposite, actually. Even her marriage conflicts sound like real-life relationship goals. “I treat him like my girlfriend,” she says about Ryan. “I’m like, ‘Hey, this happened. It upset me. This is how I feel. What do I do?’ And he does the same for me. He treats me like his best buddy.”
The couple, who married in 2012, now have two daughters, James and Inez—and they remain more private than ever when it comes to family. “My husband and I are really shy people who express ourselves best when we’re acting, when we’re hiding as someone else,” Blake explains. “So the fact that very shy people have to share that shy person with the world—and are sometimes hurt by it—it’s very weird emotionally.”
Hats off to Blake for being her most authentic self.
