Blake Lively doesn’t like photo shoots.

Over the years, the 36-year-old actress has been voted the world’s most desirable woman and made several most beautiful women of all time lists. She’s also acted in many fashion-forward roles and repeatedly dazzled on the red carpet. Yet, Lively reveals to Vogue that she dislikes photo shoots because she’s “just too shy.”

“I’m a very shy person, so I don’t like doing photo shoots, really,” she tells the outlet. “Because when I’m acting, I’m playing a character. And I don’t…I don’t feel super comfortable in front of a camera. It’s part of why I don’t want to be in magazines.”

She continues, “I know it’s not something I’m supposed to say—I mean, this is I think the first cover I’ve done in four years. Because I just- I’m just too shy.”

But Lively doesn’t let her shyness show on camera. For the September 2024 issue, Lively stars as “The Cat” alongside her good friend Hugh Jackman as “L’Ombre,” in Baz Luhrmann‘s Hitchcock-inspired Vogue fantasia, “The Heist of the Heart.”

Lively stuns in a Michael Kors Collection dress and Cartier High Jewelry necklace alongside Deadpool & Wolverine star Jackman, who wears a Ralph Lauren Purple Label suit.

Lively credits Luhrmann for her agreeing to the photo shoot.

“I’m just gonna go out on a limb and say Baz is my favorite director,” the mother of four says. “I just love Baz so much. Because he celebrates love. Nobody does love like that.”

Lively says her “life has become more intimate” since she’s focused on taking care of her young children in recent years and taking fewer movie roles. Lively shares four kids with husband Ryan Reynolds — daughters James, 9, Inez, 7 and Betty, 4, and son Olin, 1.

“But when they said Baz will do it, I thought, OK, I’ve always wanted to work with Baz. Even if it’s just a week doing a photo shoot for Vogue, that’s still working with him,” she continues to the outlet. “Seeing through his lens and how he tells stories. Gracing these pages is not my gift to the world. I understand I’m lucky to do it.”

But what was “just supposed to be a fitting” eventually “turned into a multi-hour photo shoot.” Luhrmann tells the outlet that he wanted to see her “play something that you don’t immediately associate with her body of work,” causing him to create a glamorous jewel thief character.

In one shot, the It Ends With Us star poses like a panther while Elizabeth Taylor’s famed ruby necklace dangles from her hand. In the moonlight, she wears a Balenciaga pant bodysuit, Hood London hat and sunglasses, Khaite backpack and Cartier necklace.

At the time of her Vogue interview, Lively was in Rome during production on the as-yet-untitled sequel to A Simple Favor.

In April, Lively was spotted in Italy donning a wedding dress for the sequel to the 2018 comedy thriller. That month, Henry Golding shared new details to ET about A Simple Favor 2. He will be reprising his role as Sean Townsend alongside Anna Kendrick as Stephanie Smothers and Lively as Emily Nelson.

“Paul [Feig] is pulling out all the stops and bringing the fans what they loved so much about the first,” Golding told ET at the time. “Just the hilariousness and all the absurdity of the situation.”

In July, he told ET that the sequel will be sexier and more “outrageous” than the original film.

“This film is like a fever dream in comparison to the first,” Golding said. “It is so out there and I think Paul just lent in to what everybody absolutely loved about the first and was like, ‘You know what, if we’re gonna make one more movie, let’s just make it the most outrageous and just up the antics.'”

“It is so crazy, this script. But it’s going to be an amazing film,” he said. “The sexy meter ramps up immediately.”

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