A journalist didn’t want to react to Blake Lively’s uncomfortable comments during an interview because she feared being “blacklisted” by the film industry.
Entertainment reporter Kjersti Flaa reflected on the resurfaced 2016 sit-down with Lively and actress Parker Posey in an exclusive interview with Page Six this week.
“As a journalist, you always have to take the high road, you know?” she said. “So when I was sitting there, I couldn’t react to what they were doing to me in a sense of leaving or talking back to them or doing anything like that, because I knew if I did, then I would never get opportunities like that again.”
While Flaa noted that she didn’t necessarily want another chance to interview the “Gossip Girl” actress, she said that Lively works with people in high places.
“You know, she has a publicist, and then they talk and then they blacklist you,” Flaa theorized. “That’s how it works, right?”
Due to her worries about being ostracized from any future interview opportunities, the writer said she just bit her tongue.
“So I just sat there and then I started getting more and more frustrated and angry and upset and all these emotions because I was like, I couldn’t believe they were actually doing it. I was just in shock.”
Flaa pointed out the unfair advantage Lively had over her during their uncomfortable conversation.
“A journalist who wants to continue doing these kind of interviews, you just have to, you know, accept these terms,” she said.
In 2016, Flaa interviewed Lively and Posey while the actresses were promoting their movie “Café Society.” Since Lively was pregnant at the time, Flaa congratulated her on her “little bump,” prompting the star to hit back, “Congrats on your little bump.”
Flaa, taken aback, tried to push on with the interview by asking them about their film wardrobe. But Lively appeared offended by the question and clapped back, “Everyone wants to talk about the clothes, but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.”
From there, Lively and Parker had a whole conversation with each other without letting Flaa get a word in.
“I was just sitting there like, ‘Oh.’… I didn’t really understand all that,” Flaa told us. “And then when I asked the next question about the costumes, [they] turned to each other and just ignored me. That’s when I started, you know, feeling like, ‘Oh my God. They’re actually doing this.’”
Flaa called the interview a “really traumatizing experience.”
“I was just sitting there. At first I was like, wow, this is really uncomfortable,” she said.
Despite the online backlash after Flaa resurfaced the video in 2024, Lively allegedly never reached out with an apology.
“Blake had every opportunity to right this wrong because she clearly knew very well that this interview existed and got out there and nothing happened,” Flaa said.
Instead, Lively subpoenaed Flaa during her legal battle with “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni. (Lively sued the director in December 2024 for sexual harassment and other claims and Baldoni responded with a $400 million countersuit accusing her and husband Ryan Reynolds of defamation, extortion and creating a smear campaign against him. Both denied any wrongdoing.)
In June 2025, Baldoni’s countersuit was tossed, though he won a victory last month when the judge dismissed 10 of Lively’s 13 allegations against him, including sexual harassment, conspiracy and defamation.
Last week, Lively and Baldoni announced they had reached a settlement. Neither party won any money from the legal war, though they each had to pay millions in legal fees.
With the lawsuit not going to trial, Flaa said she missed out on the opportunity to speak out on the stand.
“I was kind of looking forward to just poke holes in everything,” she said.
Reps for Lively and Posey didn’t immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
The post Why Blake Lively made reporter fear being ‘blacklisted’ after interview: ‘I couldn’t react’ appeared first on Page Six.
