Blake Lively faces backlash for repeatedly using transgender slur in past interviews
Blake Lively is in the hot seat again.
The “It Ends With Us” actress, 36, has come under fire after internet sleuths dug up old interviews in which she repeatedly used a transgender slur.
During a conversation with Elle magazine in 2012, Lively made remarks to the outlet about her future children.
The “A Simple Favor” star was called out on social media Sunday after a user posted on X, “sometimes ill [sic] be quietly going about my day and then ill [sic] remember the time blake lively said this to a journalist.”
He then posted an image of her quote: “I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they better be trannies. Because I have some amazing shoes and bags and stories that need to be appreciated.”
The term “tranny” has been deemed defamatory by some members of the transgender community, as pointed out on GLAAD’s website.
Followers took to the comment section to voice their disapproval.
“Not Lady Deadpool…” one user wrote, while another reacted, “This is disgusting.”
However, some fans also defended Lively’s choice of words, with one social media user sharing, “There was absolutely nothing wrong with that word when she said it, now people are oversensitive. RuPaul even had a song with it in the title.”
A second follower wrote, “I get what she was trying to say because someone better appreciates all that Vintage Versace she has. But she could’ve used different wording.”
But this wasn’t the first time Lively used the word.
In 2008, the star said the slur during an interview with Nylon alongside “Gossip Girl” co-star Leighton Meester.
Dismissing rumors of a feud with Meester, Lively said, “You read the gossip magazines and everybody is dating everyone, everybody hates everyone, everybody’s had tons of plastic surgery and we’re actually men and trannies. You don’t listen to the rumors.”
The following year, the “Shallows” actress repeated the word during an interview with Allure while discussing her insecurities on the set of “Gossip Girl.”
“I feel like a tranny a lot of the time. I don’t know, I’m … large?” Lively told the outlet. “They put me in 6-inch heels, and I tower over every man.”
“I’ve got this long hair and lots of clothes and makeup on,” she continued. “I just feel really big a lot of the time, and I’m surrounded by a lot of tiny people. I feel like a man sometimes.”
Just last week, a journalist slammed Lively over a 2016 interview that she called “the most uncomfortable interview situation I have ever experienced.”
Norwegian reporter Kjersti Flaa shared her four-minute interview with Lively and her “Café Society” co-star Parker Posey.
Flaa posted the video to YouTube titled, “The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.”
“Sitting down with Blake Lively and her co star Parker Posey for ‘Cafe Society’ (2016) is the most uncomfortable interview situation I have ever experienced,” she wrote in the video’s description. The footage showed Lively’s snippy responses to the interview questions, including when Flaa congratulated the then-pregnant actress on her baby bump.
“Is it not OK to congratulate someone on their pregnancy or to ask another woman about costumes she is wearing in a film? Let me know what you think in the comments,” Flaa’s caption read.
The resurfaced interviews come amid speculation about tension between the “It Ends With Us” cast.
Despite box office success, Lively has been criticized for failing to discuss the film’s domestic violence theme and instead promoting her new haircare line, Blake Brown Beauty, and her floral fashions.
Meanwhile, her co-star Justin Baldoni has hired crisis public relations manager Melissa Nathan amid feud allegations.
Rumors started circulating after fans noticed that Baldoni — the film’s director and male lead — did not make any press or red carpet appearances alongside his co-stars Lively, Brandon Sklenar, Isabela Ferrer and Jenny Slate.
At the New York premiere on Aug. 6, Baldoni and Lively — who served as a producer — watched the flick in separate movie theaters.
Lively was with her family and friends in one theater while Baldoni and his guests watched the best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover take life in another.
