Leighton Meester’s summer vacation
Leighton Meester insists there's no truth to the rumour she will soon leave her hit TV show "Gossip Girl."
"That’s just another example of when your answer to a question is totally misconstrued for the purpose of making an article sound better," the 25-year-old actor says of the internet, um, gossip during a Beverly Hills interview. "Someone asked me, 'What’s after 'Gossip Girl'?' and I said I didn't know. I have a couple of more years on my contract; we've finished the fourth year and we’re all on a six-year contract, which is pretty standard."
While we certainly believe Meester is not about to jump from the ship that made her a star, it's easy to see why many gave credence to the report. After all, she's been branching out like crazy in her 'Gossip Girl' downtime, with a burgeoning music career and four films out this year. The Nashville drama
Country Strong and psycho-horror
The Roommate have already come out, while the indie character study
The Oranges opens in the fall.
And this month there's
Monte Carlo, a frothy Euro-confection about three young American tourists who ditch their boring Paris itinerary for the Riviera when one of them is mistaken for a wealthy British heiress.
"It’s really great," Meester enthuses. "It's so sweet and fun, and it’s beautiful looking. We shot it in Paris and Monte Carlo with
Selena Gomez and
Katie Cassidy. It's a story about three young women who go on vacation — reluctantly — together. But they end up just growing and learning and really becoming close and falling in love. Coming of age, essentially."
Though the source novel, "Headhunters" by
Jules Bass, concerned a quartet of middle-aged gold diggers in Monaco's entertainment capital (the project was initially a vehicle for
Nicole Kidman and
Julia Roberts), producers ultimately thought it would work better as a showcase for Disney teen star Gomez and the GG tandem of Meester and Cassidy. And before you write the whole thing off as chicklet fluff, know this: the director is
Thomas Bezucha, who made the sharp romantic comedy
The Family Stone.
Meester isn't making any claims about
Monte Carlo's art-film cred. Yet, despite the critical dismissal of her last two releases, doing movies that matter seems to be her goal.
"In the last couple of years, especially, I’ve been yearning for that a bit," she admits. "I just want to continue to work on things that make me happy, and grow as much as possible. I have a movie coming out in November called
The Oranges that's funny and, in some weird way, a love story. It's about two families that live across the street from each other, and my character falls in love with the father across the street. It's about change and inevitability.
"I read a lot, classic books if I can," Meester adds. "I try to learn and be open-minded. I travel a lot; learn languages and music. I try to be smart!"
Well-spoken and clearly intelligent, Meester seems genuinely curious and happy to deepen her knowledge. Tabloid psychologists might accuse her of overcompensating for her family background (her mom was serving a prison sentence for drug-related charges when Leighton was born) or the idea that, well, models are supposed to be dumb (she had a Wilhelmina contract prior to hitting puberty).
Before "Gossip Girl," Meester had already proven herself bright enough to make guest appearances on many of TV’s smartest series, including "Law & Order," "Entourage," "24," "Veronica Mars" and "House."
"I never went to college, but I've done a lot of what people probably get out of that college experience," Meester says with a shrug. "I don't regret it at all; I think that what I would get out of college is learning, and I do a lot of that on my own. There is the social aspect of what the college experience is, but I've had my share of that, which is fine — that gets boring after awhile, so I'm done!"
Unlike many an actor who fancies rock stardom as well, Meester is taking a personal, carefully considered approach to music in the wake of several pop singles ("Somebody to Love," "Good Girls Go Bad") and positive notices for her
Country Strong foray into twang.
"I fell in love with that genre of music and learned so much in Nashville and working with everybody, about performing and playing and everything to do with country music," she says. "It really influenced my music and what I do, how I write and play."
As for an album, it will come out according to her schedule, not some record company's.
"Music, I think, should be important to everyone, and it's really important to me," she says. "Making my own music…I love writing, love singing, love performing. It's a huge part of who I am, in my heart. But I don't want the pressure of making it a career to make money. That's the last thing I'd want because I want it to be pure and I want it to feel right. When everything's perfect I'll release it, because I do want people to hear it. In the meantime I'm really just enjoying the process of creating."
As is the case with her family,
Leighton Meester makes no apologies for her scheming "Gossip Girl" character Blair Waldorf, a rich Manhattan princess who's been compared to a junior league Joan Collins. Although Waldorf is as judgeable as she is judgmental, Meester has learned from life that most people deserve to be given a break. Regardless, it doesn't sound like she wants to give up the character anytime soon.
"She's kind of larger than life, which I think for the show's purpose is a good thing," Meester says. "She dresses very specifically and very well, which is fun. And the writing's so good that, luckily, I can have some [negative] feelings for her and still love her."
She looks different but in a good way.
