Blake Lively is opening up about her insecurities over flaunting her bikini body onscreen just eight months after giving birth.
“The struggle is that I am doing a movie in a bikini eight months after having a baby and there is a level of insecurity and vanity that comes with that,” The Shallows actress tells Australia’s Herald Sun of filming the movie.
“You don’t want to be the person in the magazines that they are saying ‘ugh, look at her’ rather than ‘wow, look at her,’ ” she adds.
Lively, who gave birth to her first daughter with husband Ryan Reynolds, James, in December 2014, also says she realizes the stigma pregnant women face is part of the problem.
“That’s a shame because there shouldn’t be that negative ‘ugh’ after someone has a baby,” she explains. “Your body is so beautiful. You couldn’t walk a Victoria’s Secret runway but it’s beautiful in a completely different and incredible way and I do wish I had the bravery to go out there and represent women as they actually look.”
The actress recently revealed the strict diet she followed to get in shape for the underwater thriller, and while it wasn’t easy, the hard work paid off.
“That movie was an athletic event as much as it was an acting job because they didn’t hire a stunt double until the last two weeks, so it was just insane underwater stunts,” Lively, who is now pregnant with her second child with Reynolds, recently explained on Live with Kelly.
“I don’t look like that in real life. That’s not me,” she added. “That was an eight-week period of my life. I’m luck to have an amazing trainer, this guy Don Saladino, who just kicked my butt.”