Blake Lively receives backlash for controversial September issue cover of Vogue

Blake Lively is Vogue's cover star — and not everyone is happy about it.

The "It Ends with Us" actress' shoot was directed and photographed by famed filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, who designed a setting for the magazine shoot that was inspired by British director Alfred Hitchcock. Lively is joined by fellow actor and friend Hugh Jackman on the magazine's lauded September issue cover.

"I'm a very shy person, so I don’t like doing photo shoots, really. Because when I'm acting, I'm playing a character. And I don't…I don't feel super comfortable in front of a camera. It's part of why I don't want to be in magazines. I know it's not something I’m supposed to say — I mean, this is I think the first cover I've done in four years," she told Vogue.

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Lively continued: "I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say Baz is my favorite director, I just love Baz so much. Because he celebrates love. Nobody does love like that."

In the interview, she also speaks about her friendship with pop superstar Taylor Swift, who she compared to Jackman and said, "to be friends with her is to have the most beautiful, effortlessly cool, witty, fun, fashionable, creative, caring bonus sister."

Jackman and Lively's husband Ryan Reynolds are co-stars in a different endeavor: this year's history-making box office hit "Deadpool & Wolverine." The pair of A-list actors have a long-term friendship, and a yearslong faux feud that has culminated with their superhero characters' onscreen antics.

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But not everyone loves Luhrmann's creative direction — or Lively's cover. On Vogue's posts of the cover, some users in the comments panned the Vogue visuals while others criticized the choice to put Lively on the edition over others.

"Honestly sooo tired of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds's constant shameless self-promotion. They are both c-list actors but parade themselves as much more. It’s quite baffling," one user wrote on Instagram of Lively. Others criticized Luhrmann's creative direction, writing that they "just aged 80 years looking at this cover" and "nooo this had so much potential."

On X, one commentor said, "Blake is fine but she's not all the words this person is making her out to be. Movie star? Are you sure you don't mean white and blond?"

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Not everyone hated Lively's Vogue cover. Some fans praised Lively and Luhrmann's cover, saying the director "doesn't miss." On Instagram, one commenter called the cover "absolutely perfect" while another said the cover was "breathtaking."

Lively is set to star in the film adaptation (in theaters Friday) of buzzy author Colleen Hoover's highly anticipated book "It Ends With Us," the movie depiction of the bestselling book which follows Lively, who is embroiled in a toxic and unhealthy relationship in the romance novel.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blake Lively receives backlash for controversial Vogue cover