“Green Lantern” has been dominating the buzz of all the superhero movies that will drop this summer. The 3D epic blockbuster hits theaters today and stars Ryan Reynolds as the conflicted, yet courageous hero.
WORTH 12 BUCKS?: “Green Lantern”
GlobalGrind sat down with co-star of the film, the beautiful Blake Lively, to talk about “Green Lantern”‘s heavy fan base, her magnamious costar Ryan Reynolds and even her obsession with Harry Potter!
You look phenomenal as a brunette, tell us a little about your hair because it was a big change for you.
It was a big change, but it was important for the character. With these comic books they are these bibles that have been around for so long and there are so many devout followers, that for me to go in there and change a character just because I have blonde hair is not right. I actually had a security guard come up to me that I work with on my show that said, “For your own safety you need to dye your hair brown.” He was a huge “Green Lantern” fan. It was really cool to have a different hair color.
It really worked, it looked fantastic. How “Green Lantern” savvy were you before you even got the role? Did you know anything?
I never heard of “Green Lantern,” which I think is really exciting because it’s such a terrific comic. He’s such a wonderful superhero because he is very human, he’s not a super man. And he doesn’t want this responsibility and I think he’s a lot easier to relate to in a lot of ways because he’s very flawed. So, when I heard about the comics I though this is either going to be really awesome, or it could be really wrong, you know, a guy with a magical ring. But the possibilities are infinite, he can project anything he wants out of this ring and the fact that he doesn’t want this responsibility and he is also a bit of a hero in real life. He’s also a fighter pilot and so is Carol, so the real life heroes overshadow the heroes that they are in this super natural world. But, it was exciting because you get to introduce a beloved comic to a whole new generation, which my nephews don’t know anything about it. Now they’re going to get to fall in love with a whole new story. It’s pretty cool.
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Carol is such a strong character as well. The producers saw you in “The Town,” which was a completely different character. What do you think it was that they saw in you that to let you do a role like this?
Well, that’s the huge testimate to Warner Brothers that they saw “The Town” and wanted me to be the girl in a superhero franchise movie because that was such a dark, twisted character. But, they don’t make films that make money and then films that gain accolades. They try to make good films across the board. They’re such an incredible studio that way, they have such integrity. The fact that they saw “The Town” and wanted me for this was so flattering and spoke to their vision of what sort of movie they wanted to have. I think that it’s pretty strange for me to be a fighter pilot and run a business, but I love the challenge and I had so much fun doing this. But it’s great to work off of Ryan too because we we’re very much challenging each other and sparring back and forth. So having that sort of dynamic helped make me feel like this empowered businesswoman, because you have a strong man to combat with.
Let’s talk about Ryan Renalds, because the guy’s so great. Why do you think he made the perfect Green Lantern?
I think that he does everything with such charm and heart and you really connect with him. I’ve never met a person that doesn’t like Ryan and that’s pretty unbelievable, because a lot of dudes don’t like other guys. Or women will like this guy, but men aren’t a fan and the other way around. But he is just disarmingly wonderful. He’s strong and he’s powerful but he’s also very sweet and vulnerable. And to play a superhero like this, somebody who can save the world, but somebody who doesn’t want to, somebody who’s had a really horrible past, somebody who is very broken by their surroundings but has to put that aside to then save the planet, even though he doesn’t want to. You have to have a very complex person and without Ryan we wouldn’t have the Green Lantern.
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Is there pressure when you go into something like this, with such a huge fan base?
Oh, there’s an incredible amount of pressure. Before, when you open that script you think, OK am I going to take this on because there are so many people that I am going to either excite or disappoint and probably both, and not just me, the whole production. Because you have such a devout fan base going into it. But, it was so rewarding going to Wondercon and Comacon and seeing the audiences’ reaction to this because they are very honest and will grill you. So for us to see the 10 minutes of footage, the first time we saw it was in front of them, so here we are feeling like rock stars back there because everybody’s screaming, ‘Yes, this is wonderful!’ It was the best audience to see it with, people dressed up in Green Lantern suits. It makes you feel very good about yourself.
Now there’s was a little action for you and you had to go up in the matrix rig.
It didn’t look nearly as challenging on your body as it was. It was when I was floating, I was like, ‘Oh that’s so easy.’ It’s enjoyable, [but] it’s the hardest thing ever. You need all this core strength; I trained for months to just look like I’m just floating effortlessly in the sky.
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It must be so wonderful for you to be able to take on these different roles and still be able to do a show like”Gossip Girl.”
I feel very lucky, I get to do so much, I get to do my show and I also get to do wonderful films like this and play such different characters. I couldn’t feel happier or luckier.
We understand that you are a Harry Potter fan?
Oh my gosh, it’s not normal.
How are feeling about the last movie coming out?
(Deep sigh) I actually refused to see Part One because I’m in denial mode that it’s done. But the best part of this Green Lantern connection is with Warner Brothers, I get to watch one and two together. They’re doing a screening for me, so it’s going to be like a six hour screening. I’m going to dress up as Hermione and bake Harry Potter treats.
