Blake Lively, 36, has developed a new appreciation for her middle name, thanks to her husband Ryan Reynolds.
In an interview with MTV UK to promote her new film It Ends with Us, alongside costar Isabela Ferrer, Lively shared her journey to embracing her unique middle name, given to her by her mother.
When Ferrer struggled to recall Lively’s middle name, she joked, “Oh my God, you’ve said it before.”
Lively’s newfound love for her middle name is a recent development, one that she credits to her relationship with Reynolds.
“Have I? I don’t really talk about it much,” Lively responded.
Observing her co-star’s difficulty recalling, Lively started providing Ferrer with hints to aid in her deciphering: “If you write diary entries [it’s] the first part of my middle name.”
“Ellen? Your middle name is Ellen?” Ferrer asked.
Ferrer was close when trying to guess Blake Lively’s middle name, as it’s inspired by a notable figure, Ellen DeGeneres, who is often mentioned in the diary entries of Lily Bloom, the character they both play in It Ends with Us.
Ferrer’s guesses, “Elenor? Elenora?”, were near misses, but showed she was heading in the right direction.
With Ferrer still guessing to no avail, Lively said, “Yeah, kind of, but with a ‘D.’ ”
“It’s not a name. My mom, I think, made it up by accident,” she added after seeing Ferrer still appearing to be confused. “It’s not a word, it doesn’t exist,” Lively assured her.
The Age of Adaline star finally disclosed her middle name, “Ellender”, after Isabela Ferrer’s incorrect guesses. Ferrer then struggled with the pronunciation, humorously likening it to Professor Dumbledore’s name.
Lively chuckled and corrected her, saying, “I’m not Dumbledore, it’s Ellender. Though Dumbledore honestly [would] probably [be] a better option.”
The actress confessed that she was “confused” by her middle name in the past, leading her to dislike it. With a nod to any potential viewers sharing her middle name, she apologized, saying, “If there’s any Ellenders watching this.”
