Blake Lively Lost Excitement for Acting Because of ‘Gossip Girl’

Blake Lively got her big break starring in the popular CW series Gossip Girl. But after the show came to an end, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue a career in the film industry.

Blake Lively wanted to take a long break from acting after doing ‘Gossip Girl’

Lively wasn’t exactly new to acting by the time she joined the cast of Gossip Girl. She had a few roles in projects like Accepted and Simon Says. She also came from a family of actors, who exposed her to the arts at a young age. Lively’s father was an actor who appeared in shows like The Dukes of Hazard and Malibu Shores. Her mother worked as an actor as well.

It seemed Lively would follow in her family’s footsteps even further after receiving the role of Serena van der Woodsen on the CW show. Gossip Girl expanded Lively’s star power, and the attention the show brought her gave her the opportunity to do more film projects. But being on the television series, which lasted from 2007 to 2012, started to feel too much like a job to Lively.

“I was on my show [Gossip Girl] for so long that I really wanted to break from acting because it lost its excitement for me in a way because it was such a job.” Lively once told The Cut, “I never lost my appreciation for [acting], though; I just felt like I didn’t have as much to offer because I got used to it. I wanted to explore other passions.”

One of the passions she wanted to explore was starting her own lifestyle site similar to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop or Jessica Alba’s Honest company. However, she wasn’t sure at the time if she would categorize her business as “lifestyle.”

“I was very vague about it. And because of that, everyone was filling in the blanks about what other sites it could be like. It’s not accurate. I’m creating a brand that I felt the need for,” she said.

“At first, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. The company came from something separate when I had that free time. It’s a space I wanted that I couldn’t find anywhere else. I’m still being very vague, intentionally. But I’m really, really excited,” she added.

Blake Lively’s website didn’t last long

The site she must’ve been hinting at was Preserve. Preserve was a 2014 digital magazine where Lively recommended and sold a variety of handmade products, from t-shirts to aprons to pans. It also offered lifestyle advice and unique recipes. Preserve didn’t last, however. She shut it down in 2015.

That didn’t stop Lively from enjoying the best of both worlds when it came to her passions, however. Lively maintained her acting career. The 2020s have seen her launch businesses far different from Preserve. In 2021, she launched Betty Buzz, which specializes in non-alcoholic drink mixers. Two years later, she released a mixer that specialized in alcoholic beverages called Betty Booze. Last month, on August 4, 2024, Lively released a haircare line named after her called Blake Brown.

Blake Lively agreed to do ‘Gossip Girl’ under special conditions

Lively wasn’t sure she wanted to continue acting even before she was cast in Gossip Girl. By the time she was considered for the show, she’d become disillusioned by the business.

“I realized that [acting] was a business as much as a craft,” she once told Vanity Fair. “People will go see your movie based on your standing and all of that. And it didn’t make sense to me because I was 18 and being an artist.”

Being a part of a family of actors actually further discouraged Lively from the film industry.

“I did not want to be an actor because my whole family did it — going into the family business was the last thing I wanted to do,” Lively said in an interview with Ocean Blue World.

She ended up telling Gossip Girl producers that she’d rather go to college. However, the producers offered her the opportunity to star in the series while still attending school. Since she’d be able to do both, Lively couldn’t pass on the offer.

“Then they said, ‘Okay, you can go to Columbia one day a week,” she said. “After the first year [of the show], it’ll quiet down. Your life will go back to normal and you can start going to school. We can’t put it in writing, but we promise you can go.’ So that’s why I said, ‘Okay. You know what? I’ll do this.’”