Coming off a widely acclaimed performance in last year’s drama The Town, Blake Lively now stars as Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan/Green Lantern’s lifelong friend and sometime lover, in Warner Bros.’s new action-adventure Green Lantern.

How much did you know about the Green Lantern?

I actually didn’t know anything about the Green Lantern but I got a quick education; my nephews were very upset with me that I didn’t know the Green Lantern. But not just the nephews, all of these crew members from Gossip Girl just turned into these instant nerds. Even our bodyguard who’s like this stone-faced tough guy was like, “Oh my gosh, you’re going to be Star Sapphire!”  He was laying into me about my hair and this and that and I thought, “Who knew!” It was exciting to see how many people were excited about the Green Lantern.

Did you have to do loads of background research on the Green Lantern?

The first thing I did was go on Wikipedia and it was speaking a different language because whoever wrote it had such a great understanding of the world. It’s actually quite comical. So Jeff Johns got me the origins story which gives a clearer version of the Green Lantern. There’s a lot of story because it’s been around since the ’40s. There’s a lot of stuff that I missed.

You are a fashion icon, do you have nice outfits for the movie?

Oh my gosh, my outfits are incredible. Njala is such a talented costume designer. She’s Academy Award-winning, so that’s pretty huge! But she has such a clear strong vision and it’s really important to her to make this movie modern and fashionable but still timeless, which is a hard thing to balance. But I think she’s doing great because the film doesn’t take place anywhere. Where Gotham City (of the Batman series) is like New York City, Green Lantern’s is like California, but we don’t want to tie it to any modern day city so it can withstand the test of time. And she’s helping me feel like my character more because Carol is a very strong woman, because she owns this business and she’s also a fighter pilot, so there’s a lot of layers to her personality and how would that person dress.

Can you talk about Carol’s relationship with Hal Jordan and how it evolves?

Their relationship is very much a tug. They’re very competitive because they are two of the best fighter pilots in the world. They’ve grown up together. Her father runs the company that his Dad worked and died for. So there’s a lot of obstacles that they have, but they are still very much in love. But I think that it’s nice to have a relationship where the woman is just as strong as the man, if not stronger. A lot of times in superhero movies, he comes in and saves the damsel. But for me to be coming in and saving his butt a lot of time is fun for me.

Have you developed a strong working relationship with Ryan Reynolds?

We’re out here with not many people and we have a lot of scenes with just the two of us. Martin (Campbell, the director) will come in and say, “I just want you guys to play off each other,” so he’s put a lot of rehearsal time in the three of us.  He wants us to have a witty rapport between us. It’s kind of fun cause the movie needs that to carry it along. You don’t want to see Carol just coming at him all the time or else she’ll just be obnoxious. We have a lot of fun.

Can you tell us more about Carol then?

Throughout this film she starts off as a fighter pilot for her father’s company, to taking over the company. Which not only is a huge thing for her, but is a huge thing for her relationship with Hal. He doesn’t support her in this promotion cause it’s the company in which his father died. It’s a big thing for her personally and it separates her and Hal a bit. And I think it’s important because when she becomes Star Sapphire, she’ll be a villain and they’ll have to fight each other. I think it’s cool because I’ve never seen a movie where the love interest is the villain. But she actually turns good again.

It’s interesting to see Star Sapphire’s evolution into the villain. Because every ring is an emotion that is represented by a different part of the color spectrum: green is ‘will’, yellow is ‘fear’, violet is ‘love’. But the way the ring comes to Carol is comic in that she’s not chosen by her personality; the ring just uses her body as a vessel. So she can’t use the ring’s powers, it just uses her body to make these things happen. But she learns to harness the power to channel love. It’s sweet thing, being a romantic girl.

How important are the choices you are making in your career?

It’s very important to me. I’m still very young in my career, so I’m able to do things that I haven’t done. I have more options, which I’m very grateful for. I love being on a movie this huge and it’s really amazing just to see each person in their department at the top of their game. I just want to try doing something different from Gossip Girl because that’s what I’m still known for. I did a movie called The Town and that could not be any more different from Gossip Girl. I’m this drug mule Boston townie girl with a two-year-old child and that in contrast to this is a pretty big contrast. I like discovering what I can do.

Are you comfortable with the level of your success?

I don’t have a proper gauge, because I’m me, so you sit in a room with people saying this or that and you take it for what it’s worth. The reason I love this business is because I get to do what I do at work in front of the camera every day. Plus the production, especially the costume team...gosh, how I love the costume department. I love going in there and figuring out my character in the design of their clothes.

The public side is something that I don’t think anyone could ever be comfortable with, because anonymity is something that I value so so much. And that’s something that you give up, but you’re counterbalancing that with saying, “Come watch my movies, come look at me on this magazine.” So it’s a really weird thing, but you can never be accustomed to that level of success. But it brings certain comforts, which I really enjoy.

Who are your influences? Who do you admire now?

A lot of the actresses I admire are older actresses, like Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. These are just people that I’ve grown up watching.

There’s nobody that I’m watching and saying I want their career. People I admire that are working now are Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Annette Bening. I love Catherine Keener, she’s so interesting.

Do you see yourself to be the face of a new generation?

That’s giving me too much credit. I like to handle myself in a classy way. I always have been a hard worker and set really high goals for myself because I like people telling me I can’t do something and then proving them wrong. So I feel like when kids tell me they don’t want to go to school and stuff, I tell them that of course you have to go to school for the educational base, but you also have to have something you are passionate about. I like to show young people that there isn’t a limit to what you can do when you set your mind to it. I definitely don’t think I’m the face of a new generation.

Opening across the Philippines on June 16 in 3D, 2D and regular format, Green Lantern will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.