Blake Lively on Her First Movie, ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’
Though Blake Lively had a small part in her dad’s move, The Sandman, back in 1998, her first official job was portraying Bridget Vreeland in The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants. In the film, Lively portrayed a talented and daring soccer player who was still coping with the death of her mother. Coincidentally enough, Lively’s real-life father, the late actor, Ernie Lively, portrayed her dad in the film also. But what was was it like for the for the Gossip Girl alum to work on such a big film for her very first project, and how did the mom of three manage to book the role?
Funnily enough, Blake had no interest in being an actor growing up. As her mom, dad, and four siblings were all entrenched in the entertainment industry, she wasn’t keen on getting into the “family business.” However, her elder brother, Eric Lively, convinced her to go on a few auditions. And, as luck would have it, those few auditions led to her very first gig. “I didn’t have an agent,” Blake shared with Interview Magazine about her early audition days. “I would just write down that I was with my brother’s agency, and then the agency would get calls and say that they had no idea who I was. But after a few auditions, I got The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which was my first job.”
Blake Lively reflects on her very first movie, ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’
Even after booking such a huge movie, Blake wasn’t sure that acting was going to be her path. However, she loved that she didn’t have to miss much school for her first gig and she actually filmed The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants in the Summer between her junior and senior year of high school. “It was an amazing first job,” the A Simple Favor star recalled. “And all I had to do was miss finals at school? So I thought, ‘Well, this is great. I’ll just try out acting and see if I like it.’ I missed my finals, I was away shooting for the summer, and I came back home. But rather than pursue acting, I decided that I wanted to finish out my senior year. I thought I’ll finish high school and then I’ll hold off going to college for a year and just try it. But here I am still acting. Things worked out all right.”
Of course, filming The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants wasn’t all smooth sailing for Blake. She admitted that she didn’t consider the actual craft of acting until she saw footage from the film. Furthermore, because she was so green, she made a number of errors in front of a large number of people. “It was great to have my first opportunity be such a big role, but also not great because all of the mistakes I made-the entire learning process was on the big screen for everyone to see.” While it may have been jarring for Blake’s first gig to be such a big one, clearly things worked out for the actor. We’re sure her loyal fans are interested to see what she does next.
