Blake Lively Almost Played This Role In The Great Gatsby- Here’s Why It Didn’t Work Out

Okay, brace yourself for this: Blake Lively almost played Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby! Imagine her going head-to-head with heavyweights like Keira Knightley and Michelle Williams for the gig. It turns out she was close to landing it. She even had lunch with Leonardo DiCaprio and director Baz Luhrmann to discuss the role. It looked pretty promising until Carey Mulligan stepped in, nailed her audition, and stole the show with that iconic kiss scene.

As Mulligan confessed, “I was terrified of reading with him… but it said in the script that Daisy kisses Gatsby, so I asked if I should, and Baz said, ‘Yes.’ So I kissed him.” Yup, that was the moment. But here’s the kicker: even though Lively didn’t land the role, she did snag something else—Leo. The two allegedly hit it off and dated for a solid five months. For a second, it looked like Blake might be The Great Gatsby’s real-life leading lady, but it was a short-lived romance. Still, the chemistry was undeniable, and Blake was smitten.

She even went to wild lengths to keep in touch with him while filming Gossip Girl, which Joshua Safran, the show’s producer, pointed out in Vanity Fair. “Blake was way ahead of the curve,” he said, revealing how she’d send Leo pics of a doll she carried around. Talk about keeping the spark alive before Instagram was even a thing. Blake Lively was one of the few women DiCaprio was known to date, joining the ranks of his past girlfriends like Claire Danes and Liv Tyler.