Blake Lively will be happily unemployed by the end of 2012.
The actress, 24, will begin shooting the sixth and final season of The CW’s Gossip Girl this summer, ending her reign as the Upper East Side’s resident tabloid queen Serena van der Woodsen.
“It’ll be bittersweet when it’s over because it gave me all of this. I think the best way to describe it is like someone who really enjoyed high school, and is like, ‘I’m a senior and I can’t wait for the next thing!'” she tells BULLETT‘s summer issue. “Gossip Girl was so great, but what’s the next challenge in life? Because, you know, six years is a long time.”
Lively adds: “As an actor who plays a caricature of myself on the show, I don’t think I’d say, ‘Watch Gossip Girl for my best quality of work.’ But I am very lucky to have had that experience.'”
The actress (who is currently dating her Green Lantern costar, Ryan Reynolds, 35) says she’s looking forward to fluffing out her resume, beginning with her role in director Oliver Stone‘s Savages.
“To play a blond California girl who gets with two men was scary. If it looks like me and talks like me, how do I turn it into something different? It would have been easier if I’d been thrown into the movie with a Scottish accent and purple hair.”
Though she might alienate a few Gossip Girl fans with her new movie, Lively isn’t worried. “I’m not in the business of trying to win the approval of my cast members, my director or my audience,” she tells BULLETT. “If I were, I’d be so beaten down by insecurity that I’d never be able to perform. The only person I’m trying to prove something to is myself.”