Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick’s dynamic has included both friendly banter and some not-so-serious shade.
Lively and Kendrick briefly met before they first starred in A Simple Favor together which premiered in 2018. It wasn’t until their interactions during the 2018 promo sparked rumors of a possible feud, raising some proverbial eyebrows. Neither Kendrick nor Lively have publicly addressed any of the speculation.
Six years after A Simple Favor premiered, the duo reunited for the sequel Another Simple Favor. Ahead of the movie’s release, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that there was – and is – no bad blood between Kendrick and Lively.
“There aren’t any issues between Blake and Anna right now,” the insider explained in February 2025, noting that both actresses “really love” the sequel and planned to “be doing press together.”
However, Kendrick raised eyebrows for a second time after she dodged questions about working with Lively again while the pair attended the SXSW premiere for the movie. Despite Kendrick’s behavior, director Paul Feig shut down online discourse that the women were not on good terms.
“I just reported on Blake being terrified to walk the carpet as Anna is pissed and never wants to work with her again,” a social media user claimed in March 2025, to which Feig replied, “Um … you’re wrong.”
Keep scrolling to see what Kendrick and Lively have said about each other over the years:
Jokey Shade
In a joint May 2018 interview with MTV, Kendrick poked fun at Lively, teasing she wasn’t as kind as she initially believed.
“I worked with her husband Ryan [Reynolds] several years ago, so I met Blake a few times through Ryan on that film,” Kendrick said. “And I thought she seemed nice. And little did I know!”
Alleged Social Media Block
During the pair’s joint interview with journalist Kjersti Flaa, Kendrick teased that she avoids Lively on social media
“There’s a couple of people that I’ve muted,” Kendrick quipped in the August 2018 clip before loudly whispering Lively’s name.
Being a Fan
Lively shared in an September 2018 interview with Entertainment Tonight that she was excited for the chance to work closely with Kendrick after admiring her for quite some time.
“I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, so there’s immediate chemistry — she just didn’t know about it,” she reflected. “So it’s just been a real slow, burn until I finally convinced her to be in a movie with [me].”
Getting in the DMs
Kendrick joked that after working together she wanted to keep her and Lively’s fauxmance alive and well.
“You know what it is? Ryan’s an attractive, famous, successful man and you need to keep them on their toes. He’s got a great lady and I just need to let him know that Blake’s got options, you know what I’m saying!” she teased to ET. “I’ll just be sneaky. I’ll just slide into her DMs.”
1st Impressions
Lively revealed that she and Kendrick met when they were in their late teens and was “nervous” to get to know her.
“We met through friends, and it was right after the premiere of Rocket Science,” she recalled in a September 2018 Buzzfeed interview. “You were just so good and I was just like, ‘Oh you’re so funny and charming.’ I was like, ‘Wow, this girl’s really cool.”
Working Together
Kendrick shared to Buzzfeed in September 2018 that she and Lively had a “partner-in-crime vibe.”
“Sometimes you work with somebody, and they’re great — they’re really, genuinely great — and they just have a very different working style, let’s say,” she reflected. “You know, they’re the kind of person that you can’t come to them in between and be like, ‘Yo, let me tell you what just happened.’ So that was great.”
Joking About Feud
Lively confessed that she had a challenging day on set of A Simple Favor that ended with her coming in late.
“I’m still scarred by this … when I worked late the night before, and so they told me to come in an hour and a half later the next morning, but didn’t make you come in later,” she said to Buzzfeed in September 2018. “I came to set and I was in hair and makeup, and I was like, ‘Oh, so weird, is Anna — where is she?’ and they were like, ‘Oh, she’s been ready for an hour. We didn’t push her call.’”
Kendrick quipped “that was the day” she decided to “hate” Lively.
“It was so mortifying. You’re working in every scene in this movie, and I come in for a few weeks like, ‘Just wait for me for an hour and a half while I get my hair braided!’” she explained. “I literally wanted to die and I sucked so bad in that scene because I never recovered.”
SXSW Remarks
During the March 2025 SXSW premiere for Another Simple Favor, Kendrick was asked about what it was like to work with Lively again. Kendrick quipped “oh you know” before running off to take selfies with fans.
Lively, for her part, was asked the same question about working with Kendrick and had a different response.
“Oh, it’s the best!” she gushed on the red carpet. “I’m so happy to be here.”
Later that evening, Kendrick chatted with Variety and was asked about her thoughts on Another Simple Favor being “impacted” by what’s “going on in the world,” a possible reference to Lively’s legal battle against her It Ends With Us costar and director Justin Baldoni. Kendrick played coy in her response.
“Why? What happened? I did ayahuasca and the last year of my life has been gone,” she deadpanned before hyping up Another Simple Favor. “But I hear the movie is amazing.”
