While Blair Waldorf may punish Upper East Side prep school girls who wear tights as pants on Gossip Girl, Leighton Meester’s new role in the psychological thriller The Roommate is a whole different story. A far cry from Queen Bee, Rebecca (Meester) is a deranged college freshman who becomes obsessed with her new roommate (Minka Kelly).
North by Northwestern participated in a conference call with Meester, who discussed the differences in her TV and movie characters, her ideal roommate and issues facing college freshmen.
How was this role in The Roommate similar or different from your role as Blair on Gossip Girl?
It couldn’t have been more different. The entire experience all together was different, but the character, she is from a different place. 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, of course.
What attracted you to this particular script?
The character. I love to breakdown and see where I can relate to somebody and find the humanity within. I want to care about and love 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.
According to the American Psychological Association, in 2009 the percentage of college students taking psychiatric medication has risen to 24 percent. What do you think about the sheer magnitude of that number, and how daring is it really to move in with someone who you know nothing about?
It’s an interesting subject that this movie touches on. I think that a lot of people can relate to it because it is a little bit scary or something else 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.
This is obviously a story about two young women who become friends, and my character becomes fixated on Minka’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.
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.
This was your first thriller. What was it like trying to play the villain?
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. It was all those things. 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.
What would you be looking for in the perfect roommate?
I actually love living alone. I use 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. [I would want] 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.