I'm sitting down at my dinner table and my phone begins to ring, a bubbling voice on the other phone greets me with a hello. Lounging around her house, Leighton Meester takes some time out of her busy auditioning schedule to speak with me. The conversation flows freely as we chat about Leighton's short time spent growing up in Marco Island and her acting appearances. Leighton also takes the time to comment about how messy her room is and how she should be cleaning, but she's just not in the mood since she's had the day off from going to auditions. This vivacious woman on the other line goes on to tell me about life in the audition pool, her latest role on the show "24" and her new independent film, Inside. From our interview I can tell that Leighton has an incredible sense of humor, a love for "The Simpsons" and a deep commitment to her acting. Please read on to learn more about this exercise loving, wonderful actress!
Q. Are there any recent projects that you are working on or is auditioning taking up most of your time?
A. Yeah I'm auditioning a lot, a lot for this time of year but just hoping to work as much as possible.
Q. We know that you'll be starring as Debbie on the upcoming season of the show "24." Can you tell us a bit about your character and role in the show?
A. Well, there is a limited amount that I can talk about. What I can pretty much tell you is that I play the character Debbie, she's the girlfriend, well her boyfriend is a guy whose parents are terrorists. That's what I can tell you.
Q. What attracted you to being a part of this project?
A. Well you know, I've heard a lot about it, I've heard that it has great writers, great actors and I'm a big fan of Kiefer Sutherland from a lot of his movies. Just working with great people and it's FOX and FOX is a great network to be part of.
Q. Were you a fan of the television show "24" before appearing on it?
A. To be perfectly honest, I've never seen it. I've heard a lot of good things, I've been told to go out and get the DVDs by many people but no.
Q. On the show "Entourage" you played a pop diva. Did you model your character after any real life divas in particular?
A. Well, you know what, I wish I could say I did, because it's such a diverse character but somehow I took that character like right out of me and I don't know where it came from but, it just came out very smoothly. Something in me just cried out, play a pop diva, play a virgin pop star.
Q. Over the summer you filmed the movie Inside, what was that experience like for you?
A. The experience was unlike any other that I had, you know it is an independent movie, I was working with the director who was also the writer, which was very freeing. My character, he wrote the character to be very...she had a lot of different facets to her personality, her name is Josie. She's very, you know she kind of takes a lot of attention, she's got a lot of daddy issues, she's got a lot of things happening, mental things happening and she's just sort of all over the place. But, the most wonderful part about it was that, his name is Jeff Mahler and he was the director and the writer, he kind of just gave me full reign over my character. I could improv almost the entire thing, I got to improv a lot.
Q. Do you have a most memorable moment from filming the movie?
A. Well I mean the entire time it was a very tiring shoot, because I pretty much shot my entire part in five or six days. So, it was all within one week so I just submerged myself into this character and also filming so many hours in the day I was dead tired. One day I was on the couch and I was lying down and I had just gotten about fifteen minutes in just to close my eyes and fall asleep and I was dreaming hard. But, all of a sudden I hear these words coming from above me and it's Nick D'Agosto and Jeff Mahler the director, they were both standing over me saying, "her eyes are moving, that's so weird, wake up Leighton, wake up!" I just woke up and they were both standing over me looking at me and I'm supposed to get up and go do a scene now.
Q. You're a writer and published poet, what topics do you enjoy writing about the most and why?
A. My mom is a writer so it's just sort of in my blood, but writing poetry is one of my favorite things to do and I always find time for it. There are things that I write about most that are just kind of like everyday thoughts that I have, things that come into my mind. Usually I don't sort of structure them, I just sort of wake up in the middle of the night and let it flow out of me, or just the way any kind of poetry or any kind of writing comes to me it just comes full force from my brain to my pen to my paper and I'll make sense of it later. I write about just sort of deep thoughts, some things that don't make any sense and some things that do, just about human nature in general, people that I know, I'll write poetry like to somebody but of course I never actually show it to them. I will just have it like in the third person or I'll occasionally write about love though it's such a difficult thing to write about without sounding cliché, so my take on love in the form of poetry is much different than I'm sure others....
Q. You began your career modeling, what made you decide to switch to acting?
A. Well, I started acting pretty much at the same time, they both kind of went together.
Q. Since the holidays are coming up, do you have any great holiday plans?
A. I have a pretty big family, I'm just going to be hanging out in L.A. with my family.
Q. You've appeared on several FOX television shows, what makes working for the network so appealing?
A. They always do come up with really cutting age ideas, their shows are always having great actors, great style, just everything about them comes together so cleanly. Just the parts that they make fit me well, they fit my personality just fine.
Q. Is there anything that you'd like to say to your fans and supporters?
A. You're cool. Rock on!
Lisa Steinberg
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She's the star of the show 
