Blake Lively was once a beloved celebrity, whose wit, good looks, and easygoing personality made her seem like she could do no wrong. However, in case you didn’t already know, we may have been the ones who were wrong, because this summer, Lively underwent a major fall from grace amid a truly bizarre press campaign for It Ends With Us. And now even her former Gossip Girl co-star, Sebastian Stan, seems to have thrown some subtle shade at Lively.
Lively became famous for her role of Serena van der Woodsen in the popular The CW drama Gossip Girl, where she starred as one of the main characters for six seasons between 2007 and 2011. Sebastian Stan played a recurring character, Carter Baizen, a trust fund troublemaker who posed a threat to Nate, Blair, and Serena throughout his appearance on the show.
Stan’s career only improved after his time on Gossip Girl. The actor is now known internationally for his role as Bucky Barnes/ The Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but has also starred in critically acclaimed films like I, Tonya and the limited series Pam & Tommy. Now, he’s taken on one of his most challenging roles ever — portraying a younger Donald Trump in the forthcoming biopic The Apprentice, which focuses on the felon POTUS’s Faustian early relationship with McCarthy crony and troubled dirty-politics operative, Roy Cohn.
Did Sebastian Stan shade Blake Lively?
During an interview with Variety for a skit called “Know Their Lines,” the actor looked back at some of his most iconic roles and the dialogue associated with them, and Carter Baizen was among them. However, his answer raised eyebrows among some fans, as it seemed like he shaded Lively.
The line of dialogue in question was “I know what you’re doing. You can’t avoid what happened forever.” After a pause, Stan mused, “I really hope this is what I once said to Blake Lively.” Luckily for him, he was correct. However, he continued, “Was it Blake Lively? Yeah, wish it could’ve been Blair,” he added, at around the 11:50 mark.
One fan speculated, “was that shade at blake lol?” “I can’t believe he really did say that,” another fan wrote in the comment section on YouTube. “I almost died with that,” another added. One user weighed it, “after the Blake hate train, it kinda sounds like shade (even tho is may not be).”
What Sebastian Stan might’ve meant
The internet is quick to judge Blake Lively nowadays, post-press tour for It Ends With Us, and in light of her lack of accountability, and her mean behavior to a journalist during a previous press tour, for 2016’s Cafe Society. And, although there were many stories that portray Lively in a less than favorable light on the set of Gossip Girl, Sebastian Stan surely didn’t mean his comments as criticism of his former on-screen partner. Instead, he was looking back at a different, but still good, period of his life and career. Once activated, the shade machine can seem to work overtime, but we don’t think that’s what happened, here.
After joining Gossip Girl in 2007, the actor and Leighton Meester, who played Blair, fell in love and dated for two years between 2008 and 2010. Later in the same video, Stan recalls fond memories of filming the drama, noting, “It was the first time I was in serious love with somebody.” He also added that while filming for Gossip Girl, “walking around the city, seeing these same buildings and streets—life seemed simpler.”
Sebastian Stan and Leighton Meester never addressed their breakup, but they’ve both moved on since. Stan has been linked to actress Annabelle Wallis since 2022, and Meester is married to The O.C. heartthrob Adam Brody since 2014, with whom she shares two sons. However, it looks like things weren’t so dramatic, as Stan has nothing but good words about the Queen B actress.