Blake Lively: 'Red carpet is not real life'

Actress Blake Lively has confessed to treating the red carpet like a film set as she puts on a glamourous character when she is in front of photographers.

The pregnant 28-year-old has been smashing her style game recently, wowing onlookers at this year's (16) Cannes Film Festival in a series of stunning gowns, before mixing up her looks during the press tour for her new movie, The Shallows.

And in a new interview with Hamptons Magazine, the mother-of-one admits adapting to her surroundings is just as important as mixing up the designers she works with.

"It’s mood-based, it’s environment-based, knowing what the event is," she explains. "Something like Cannes, for example, is incredibly Old Hollywood, glamorous, iconic; there’s the wind of the Cote d’Azur—you want things that will blow in the wind, that will look beautiful in the sun, that drip down a sweeping staircase.

"It’s the same thing with the Met (Gala): You think of the staircase that your outfit could drip down. You sort of look at the event cinematically and you think, 'What character do I want to play?' Red carpet is not real life, so you’re always sort of playing a character when you’re on it."

When she's off-duty, style is still important to Blake - who is married to fellow actor Ryan Reynolds, 39 - but again, her choices are mood-based.

"My style is very much a reflection of my experiences and my moods, who I am and where I’ve traveled," she said. "Whenever I travel, I like to discover little shops and restaurants and artists and artisans, and I love that to be a part of my story. So my design aesthetic, whether it’s in my home or on my body, is very much an unfolding of my experiences and my stories.

"And that can be incredibly casual—it can be jeans and a T-shirt—but it’s my dad’s T-shirt maybe. It’s stuff that normally means something to me. And it’s also very personal and relaxed. I also like to dress up, though; I also think that’s relaxing— to put on a great pair of Louboutins."