BOP Interview: Leighton Meester
By Ryan Mazie
January 31, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The Roommate is an intense horror film. But what is so scary about a college roommate?
Leighton Meester: I think that a lot of people can relate to [the plot] because it is a little bit scary when you are moving in with a total stranger. You go to college, you’re without your parents for the first time, and you’re paired up with someone who is literally going to be in your space 24 hours a day and has a lot of access to you. So a lot of the subject matter of the movie is really questioning the safety of that and the comfort zone that disappears when you’re forced into a situation.
This is obviously a story about two young women who become friends, and my character becomes fixated on Minka [Kelly]’s character and it’s this unhealthy obsession that has no real base in reality and things go wrong. I think everyone can relate to the fact that there is - everyone’s probably at one point had a friend that is a little bit too needy or too nosy or sort of feeling like they have a right to your business and your clothes and your belongings or whatever.
I’m such a wimp and trust me I saw it and I was in the movie and I was scared. But I think it’s definitely jarring and disturbing at points, but I think it’s also exciting and it is fun, and it’s a ride and it’s very sexy. I think it’s a story about two young woman that are thrown into a situation together that - they don’t know each other at all and I think a lot of people can relate to that. You don’t know your roommate. They could be either incredible lifelong friends or they can be Rebecca. You never know who you’ll be paired with, so to me that’s an interesting point of view for the movie.
The movie also touches on prescription medication, something almost 25% of college students are on today according to a 2009 study by the American Psychological Association. Playing a medicated character, how do you feel about that number?
LM: I really only know about this particular case that I tried to portray in a realist way. I don’t really know that I can comment specifically on college students with psychiatric drugs because I don’t necessarily know the relation. I think that whether or not Rebecca was in college or just anywhere she would have the same emotional and chemical problems and she has had them her whole life. I can understand the stress of college, and maybe people take those medications a little bit more freely than they should. All I know is what my character’s condition is and what she’s gone through.
It sounds like you put in a fair amount of research into playing Rebecca.
LM: Well, I was really lucky. I had the opportunity to really prepare for this, and got a lot of great psychology books and information on delusion, mental disorder, especially in women, and I had the chance to speak with different psychiatrists about the disorder. Of course I watched different movies and this movie’s very much like Fatal Attraction or Single White Female, a woman under the influence. I think it’s a very interesting subject, a woman who sort of loses a real grip on reality.
And the psychiatrists I spoke to were the most helpful because they would describe in gross detail different cases that they’d worked on defending their patients who had been convicted of crimes. I’ll spare you the details but it’s definitely dark in the mind of someone who’s living like this, and it was interesting for me because I have what I believe is a firm grip on reality. I’m weird and crazy like anybody else but this person, she really doesn’t have control of her mind whatsoever and the decisions she makes are not based on rational thinking. So it was interesting and somewhat uncomfortable at the same time.
Rebecca is one of the darkest roles, if not the most dark, you have played. How much of an impact did playing such a character have on you?
LM: Watching it years after you made it is really interesting because you do remember certain times and certain days that you filmed different scenes, but this movie is strange for me because I feel I have a bit of amnesia about it. I can’t say it wasn’t fun, it was, but it was also intense. It was a really tough time for me because I try to share something in common with her or try to understand her motives and try to relate to her in some way. It was extremely difficult for me to do, because of how she unravels. From the outside she seems like a really good friend, good person. She’s understanding, she’s artistic, she’s trustworthy, but then eventually she just completely losses that.
During filming all I had to do was work on this movie every day. I didn’t have any other obligations at the time so I got to be really involved and focused, which really was a pleasure. But I mean it’s definitely - some of the things that I had to do were really disturbing for me. Particularly a scene involving a cat, so it was an intense experience. I’ll say that.
What’s it like watching yourself on the big screen playing a villain like that?
LM: Yes, it’s funny, when I saw the movie, a couple of my friends were asking me how did you like it and I was saying it was scary and I was genuinely scared at points, but it is sort of funny that I’m what’s scary in the movie. I’m really proud of it and how it turned out and it’s definitely a ride. It’s got a lot of levels, it’s sexy and exciting and scary and jarring and disturbing. In filming it was all of that too. So I can’t say that I wasn’t at all affected by it. I think it stays with you a bit if you’re terrorizing people all day. Overall it was exciting.
In the movie, you play Minka Kelly’s roommate, so what was it like working with her on set?
LM: Well, I love Minka and I was so lucky to be able to work with her. She has a light around her. She’s beautiful and she’s so incredibly talented and giving and kind, and she was really supportive throughout the whole thing. She has a way of making things light and easy on the set, and she’s just brilliant.
The Roommate has a very interesting and prevalent marketing campaign with fake “Roommate Wanted” ads. So if you created a “Roommate Wanted” ad, what would you be looking for?
LM: I don’t know, someone who’s clean, I guess. I lived with all different roommates and there was always parties going on whenever I came home and you’re sort of expected to socialize like all the time even when you don’t want to. And of course, good roommates are really fun and for the most part I was pretty lucky, but I have had some not so good experiences with roommates who eat all your food and take all your clothes and whatever.
I actually love living alone. I used to have roommates all the time when I first moved into my own place. It’s a challenge to live with people. I mean obviously the best thing about a roommate in a good situation is if you know them, if you’re friends. If you don’t, you have no idea what their habits might be. You’re kind of taking on their friend and their life as well into your home.
With the close release of Country Strong and The Roommate, what was the difference between making the movies?
LM: Well, I think that was the most exciting part about working on these films. I did them a year apart so obviously it was very different times, and I shot The Roommate in L.A., and it was with Minka who is just such a pleasure and so cool. But of course it was a much darker period to work on The Roommate because my character is not completely stable, whereas Country Strong was shot in Nashville and I got to work with Gwyneth Paltrow, who I admire so much. It was essentially a musical, so we did a lot of recording and performing, and it was a really exciting time. Of course I can relate to that character a lot more than the one in The Roommate just because she’s sane. They’re both complete polar opposites but I find a lot of joy in that.
You also have a music career as well. While your personal music is pop, in Country Strong you sing country. Did that inspire you?
LM: Well, it was such a pleasure to be able to sing that music for Country Strong, and I’m totally in love with country music and the music that we were making for the film. I learned so much and it really changed my point of view about country music and Nashville and that whole world. It’s so fun but singing to me is really a very personal thing too. Writing music is really important to me. Even just last night I was recording stuff that I’ve been writing over the last year, and it’s really completely different than anything I’ve done, and I’m so proud of it. I’m trying to work to get it perfect and I’m going to release it soon but I’m really happy with what I’m making right now.
From Gossip Girl to the big screen, you’ve been expanding into a lot of different movies lately. What attracted you to this particular script?
LM: Well, the character. I love to break down and see where I can relate to somebody and find the humanity in them, and I want to care about my character. It was not easy with Rebecca to say the least, but I think that if you track how she is, if you track her actions they’re always motivated by something internal and obviously not based in reality at all.
So I thought it was really interesting, and I also think that it’s a movie and a film track that most people can relate to. It’s about friends, not necessarily even just roommates. I mean they’re friends and it goes terribly wrong because one person is really invested in the friendship and becomes unhealthily attached to her friend. So I think a lot of people have been there, probably not to this extreme, but I know that I’ve had friends that are just a little bit too nosy and needy and in your space and in your business.
How was this role in The Roommate similar and/or different from your role as Blair on Gossip Girl?
LM: It couldn’t have been more different. The entire experience altogether was different, but the character, she is from a different place. She has a different background, different parents. You know Rebecca has a history of having a mental disorder. It’s not at all the same as what I play day to day on my show, which is a pleasure to break from that and do something different, but it’s also so incredibly different from who I am as a person as well.
She’s not making any decisions based on reality. She doesn’t find pleasure in pleasurable things. She only does anything, including interact with anybody physically or verbally, to gain something for herself, and she uses her intelligence, her sexuality to gain control of other people. Meanwhile she doesn’t have any control of her own mind, so obviously it’s a very far cry from what I do on the show.
Going from those two extremes, what type of role would you like to take on next?
LM: I think that the best part about my job is that I can do different things all the time. I would never want to do the same thing twice, so [I’d neither want to play a role like Rebecca or Blair in the future]. I would like to do something new and completely fresh for myself. I never want to be bored.