We know her best as Gossip Girl’s Blair Waldorf, but this summer you can catch Leighton Meester taking on a fresh new role in her latest flick Remember the Daze. The indie drama, now available on DVD, features an ensemble cast with Meester at the head of the class. As valedictorian Tori, her character is forced to put her inhibitions aside in this coming-of-age tale directed by Jess Manafort.
Hollywood.com had an exclusive chat with Meester to talk about the new DVD, Gossip Girl and more.
Hollywood.com: How does Tori fit into this tale of suburban teens?
Leighton Meester: She is a graduating senior and she is the valedictorian of the class and she is paired up with her best friend in the movie Sylvia…[Tori] is this really uptight girl who – maybe not uptight, but she’s definitely not wild like her friend, but throughout the day she’s influenced to do some bad things. She goes on a babysitting job where she is convinced to take some drugs that make her do some crazy things. She takes some mushrooms and she has a moment. A few moments!
HW: Did you relate to Tori’s story more than the other characters in the film?
LM: There are all kinds of different personality traits and I relate to pretty much all of them in one way or another. In high school though, I would have to say, I mean I didn’t have the same drama as Brianne (Katrina Begin) and Dawn (Lyndsy Fonseca), who are the two girls in the little love affair, but they seem the kind of more balanced, they’re not super partiers – actually I can’t really tell you who I relate to the most because I do relate to everybody.
HW: How did you spend the last day of high school?
LM: Celebrating [laughs]. I actually went to the beach…I went to Beverly Hills High. My girlfriend and I went to the beach and ran into the water. I don’t know why, but it was kind of fun now that I look back on it.
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HW: Your director Jess Manafort is one of the youngest female directors in the industry at just 26. Can you talk about the importance of having the female perspective in film right now?
LM: I didn’t even realize it until I worked with Jess. It does make a huge difference. I didn’t realize how positive it can be. I also think it is because she is so young. She has a very interesting point of view. She is very focused and very intelligent, but she’s also got a really funny sense of humor. She’s really funny and she is kind of mischievous so to work with someone like that is really fun and challenging. She is one of my best friends too now. That should say something about doing the movie.
HW: Mischievous in what way?
LM: She would get certain performances from me, certain reactions from me for the sake of my performance because…something really small I can think of right now is she would bring out a naturally funny side of me or a sweeter side of me, but when I was supposed to be stoned out on these drugs…she is telling me how to make myself look so that I look like it, so the performance doesn’t get lost in acting too high. So she is telling me to keep my eyes really big and she is keeping her eyes really big and then she takes a Polaroid of us, because we were saying “We look ridiculous doing this!” She takes a Polaroid of us to show us it doesn’t look weird it looks really good.
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HW: Which special features are you looking forward to on the DVD?
LM: I want to see everybody’s interviews because everybody had so much fun making it and everyone was so enlightened and I don’t think we are ever going to have this kind of experience again…I’m kind of interested in my interview. This is actually really funny. Jess the director had a house in the town that we were filming in and there was this swing hanging from a tree in the backyard and I would swing on it all the time. We were filming at the house so we decided to do my interview on the last day and I was swinging on it and I said “I don’t want to get off the swing!”… They were like, “let’s just do the interview on the swing.” So my interview is actually being conducted on the swing.
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HW: What’s coming up on the next season of Gossip Girl?
LM: Well, I don’t even know. I do know that we are probably going to go to the Hamptons for a little while and that should be fun. The truth is I really don’t know. The drama is going to continue.
HW: What are you hoping for?
LM: I would like to see her come back, from where ever she ended up going with that guy, a changed woman, but still sassy!
