Few television queen bees are as iconic as Gossip Girl's Blair Waldorf. However, just because Blair and her collection of headbands inspired an entire generation to give plaid a try, doesn't mean that portraying the Upper East Side princess was always easy. According to star Leighton Meester's new interview with PorterEdit, her time on the long-running CW series came with lots of challenges.
Though Meester — who will next star in upcoming comedy Single Parents — had roles on shows like Veronica Mars and 7th Heaven before portraying a member of Manhattan's elite, it was her turn as prep school royal Blair that skyrocketed her to fame. Meester played the character from 2007 to 2012, and, according to her conversation with PorterEdit, the long hours on set weren't easy.
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"I would get there at 5 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m.," she told the magazine. "A lot of days I didn't see the sun."
It was more than just the vampiric schedule that got to Meester. Fame also meant that people treated her differently.
"If you don't have the right perspective, you could definitely be confused by people being that nice to you or judging you for behavior that's typical of a 20, 21-year-old, making mistakes but having to make them very publicly," Meester told PorterEdit. "I'm not haunted by that time, but it's been interesting and helpful for me to look at it and examine it as an adult and go, 'I don't know if it was the healthiest environment.'"
She explained that there was one important thing that kept her sane.
"I got really lucky and was able to very early on find and stay friends with people who are true," Meester told the outlet, perhaps referring to the real-life Dorota, aka actress Zuzanna Szadkowski, whom she is still friends with.
Would the actress return to Gossip Girl for a reboot? While navigating her young fame wasn't always a breeze, she does have a lot of love for the show — even if it's not where her head is at now.
"I started Gossip Girl 10 years ago when I was 20, and I'm 30 now. I loved doing it, and now I'm doing something else that I love, and something new that's a little bit more my taste as a 30 year old, something I've grown into," she told Rogue Magazine in 2017, referring to her since-cancelled sitcom Making History. "I feel so lucky that I can have such amazing fans and they either grew up with [the show] or they're growing up with it now. I've also heard people say, ‘Oh we watch that as a throwback.'"
Fortunately, we can still see Meester on TV in Single Parents — and Blair Waldorf during our next Gossip Girl binge Netflix.