Blake Lively

California blonde and Gossip Girls queen bee Blake Lively insists she never wanted to be an actress. It just happened.

She recently sat down with the UK’s Independent and said that she really wanted to go to college at Stanford, but after her role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005, when she was a high school junior, the demand for her services simply never let up. She did, however finish high school and has not completely given up on the dream of going to college, although she says she “wouldn’t try to study anything to pursue a different profession,” according to The Independent.

Season two of the hit television show Gossip Girls is now in production, and during her time off between season one and season two, Lively filmed The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which is based on a novel by writer/director Rebecca Miller, and also stars Keanu Reeves, Julianne Moore, Monica Bellucci, and Robin Wright Penn.

After saying that her acting role models include Annette Bening, Cate Blanchett, Reese Witherspoon, and Kate Winslet, Lively says, “Well, whatever I do, I try to do my best at it. There are things I feel like I’m good at but I don’t do those things enough. I’m a really great decorator and a good cook and yet I act.”