Who Is The Actress In That Steamy Betty Buzz Commercial?
In the new commercial for a beverage company dubbed "Betty Buzz," a gorgeous blonde woman clad in a suit vest tells the viewer directly that men love the product because it doesn't test on animals — it tests on them. She then dumps an entire glass down a shirtless guy's throat, telling him to let her know how much he likes it. The whole thing might feel totally weird ... if you didn't know the woman was Blake Lively and that she's using the ad to reference her film "A Simple Favor."
Like her husband Ryan Reynolds, Lively, who's been acting since she was a teenager, has used commercials for her company Betty Buzz (which makes "clean" sodas, non-alcoholic drinks, and mixers) to show off her excellent sense of humor and create callbacks to her most beloved projects in one fell swoop. So where exactly have you seen Lively before? Probably a whole bunch of projects — whether you used to really love primetime teen soaps, you're the biggest Paul Feig fan in the room, or you love Ben Affleck's work as a director. Here's why Blake Lively, founder of Betty Buzz and star of its cheeky commercials, looks so familiar.
Gossip Girl (2007-2012)
Whether you're a millennial who watched the show back when it aired on the CW or you just recently binged the series on Max, you're likely familiar with "Gossip Girl" — which means you've seen Blake Lively's performance as Serena van der Woodsen. As the flighty, beautiful society girl who flees Manhattan before the story starts — only to kick off the proceedings in earnest with her mysterious return — Lively pouts and flirts her way through the series, whether she's (mistakenly) confessing that she committed murderer, repeatedly dating her step-brother Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), or running away and changing her name to Sabrina (convincing).
Serena can be a maddening character, thanks to her on-again, off-again friendship and rivalry with queen bee Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), her constant romantic foibles, and the fact that she just shows up in person all the time instead of placing phone calls. Luckily for the character, Lively infused Serena with so much charm that you couldn't help but love her.
"Gossip Girl" is, it has to be said, a blatantly ridiculous and over-the-top show — and that's precisely why it's such a delight. (Unfortunately for the 2021 Max reboot, it didn't manage to find that same unhinged balance and was ultimately canceled.) Flanked by castmates like Meester, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford, and future "You" star Badgley, Lively shines as the impetuous, often lovestruck Serena, and the show clearly got her career off to a pretty terrific start.
The Town (2010)
After starting out with teen fare like the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" films and "Gossip Girl," Blake Lively's first real entry into more adult roles came in 2010 with "The Town," directed by Ben Affleck. The crime thriller focuses on Douglas "Doug" MacRay (Affleck), who robs a bank alongside his longtime best friends, including James "Jem" Coughlin (Jeremy Renner). Unfortunately for Doug, everything gets way more complicated when he falls in love with one of the robbery's victims Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), and soon realizes that, despite the fact that she has no idea he committed the crime, she has information that could implicate his entire gang.
So who does Lively play in "The Town?" She pops up in a supporting role as Krista "Kris" Coughlin, Jem's sister and a struggling single mom — and Doug's ex-girlfriend. Unfortunately for Kris and Jem, the Coughlin story doesn't end happily. After Kris is threatened by an FBI agent named Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm), she gives the agency information about Doug and Jem and they're all caught. Doug gets away from this particular fight, but Jem is shot and eventually takes his own life during a standoff with police. Lively's role isn't enormous, but it is pivotal to the overall narrative.
The Age of Adaline (2015)
"The Age of Adaline" asks, well, an age-old question: what if the reason someone is as beautiful as Blake Lively is because they're immortal? No, seriously: this movie is about Lively as an ageless and perpetually stunning woman named Adaline Bowman. Born in 1908, Adaline leads a normal life until she gets into a car accident that plunges her into an ice-cold lake; after that accident, she realizes she'll be 29 forever. Because she can no longer age, she changes her name and identification every few years and lives on her own, even keeping her distance from her daughter Flemming (Ellen Burstyn).
This all takes a pretty strange turn when she meets a handsome would-be suitor named Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) while she's living under the name Jenny Larson, and he's so charmed by her that, early in their relationship, he invites her to meet his family. Unfortunately for everyone, Ellis' father William (Harrison Ford) is a former lover of Adaline's and knew her by that name.
From there, the film manages to throw yet another car crash into the third act which then allows Adaline to age normally and live out her life with Ellis. "The Age of Adaline" is a fairly ridiculous movie, but as usual, Lively manages to anchor it with a heartfelt performance and genuine chemistry with both Ford and Huisman.
The Shallows (2016)
Blake Lively had led a handful of movies before 2016, but "The Shallows" proved that she could carry an entire film without any assistance whatsoever. Made on an extraordinarily low budget, "The Shallows" eventually became a box-office success — and considering that Lively is basically the only person in the movie, it's clear that her performance helped the film turn into a sleeper hit.
Lively plays Nancy Adams, a medical student mourning the death of her mother who takes what's intended to be a restorative trip to Mexico's coastline. During an otherwise normal surf, Nancy spots what appears to be a humpback whale — except that it's actually a floating carcass hiding a 23-foot great white shark. The shark attacks Nancy and leaves her stranded and fighting for her life.
Though people see Nancy from the shore, anyone who tries to get to her is killed by the shark, who is, apparently, circling her spot on a cluster of rocks. After a series of events involving a purloined GoPro, a nearby buoy, and a well-timed dive, Nancy manages to impale the shark and escape with her life — but just barely. "The Shallows" is a raw, harrowing tale of survival, and Lively pulls off the action-packed role with ease.
A Simple Favor (2018)
It's always delightful to see actors having fun on-screen, and it's pretty obvious that Blake Lively had a blast making "A Simple Favor" alongside director Paul Feig and her co-star Anna Kendrick. Lively stars as Emily Nelson, a wildly cool and somewhat aloof mom who's a stark contrast to Kendrick's Stephanie Smothers, a mommy-blogger who dotes on her son. After the two become totally unlikely yet close friends — mostly over ice-cold martinis made with Ryan Reynolds' very own Aviation Gin — Emily asks Stephanie to watch her son after school and then promptly vanishes, leaving Stephanie to step into Emily's Christian Louboutin heels and get closer with her husband Sean Townsend (Henry Golding).
Whether she's donning bespoke suits (inspired by Feig's sharp red-carpet looks), mixing freezer martinis (as she puts it, ice "ruins everything"), or slowly revealing to Stephanie that her disappearance is more complicated than anyone could expect, Lively's Emily is an absolute pleasure to watch. (Lively is also part of why the movie's costumes are so good; she worked personally with her friend Louboutin to stock the film's shoe closet.) "A Simple Favor" is a breezy, campy, dark, and pithy romp with top-notch performances from Lively and Kendrick alike — pair it with an ice-cold martini, if you can.