Intervjuv med Leighton som Teenvouge har nyligen gjort! :)

OK, Gossip Girl fans . . . here it is! Since announcing on Twitter the other day that I was meeting the Queen B herself, Miss Leighton Meester, I’ve been bombarded with questions about her clothes, demeanor, and hair. Well, I’m here to report that Leighton is every bit as down-to-earth as her character is snooty! I had an absolute blast chatting with her as well as Herbal Essences’ celebrity stylist (and Leighton’s good buddy) Charles Baker Strahan. When I pulled out my iPhone to activate the voice memo setting, Leighton squealed, “Oh! I have, like, 6,000 of those little voice memos on my phone–I use it constantly!” before curling up under a blanket on the couch like a regular girl chilling at home. Ladies, trust me, she’s supercool and supernice.

Having gone to prom on Gossip Girl, how did it compare to your real prom?

Leighton: I mean, I got to wear an Oscar de la Renta Gown [on the show] . . . so crazy! But I didn’t go to my real prom. Prom to me in real life was like, Why would I go?, and now looking back I think, Why was I so anti-prom? Back then I didn’t have money to get a dress or a limo, or anything like that. I didn’t have a date–not that that matters. I guess I just wasn’t really into it, you know? Just like I wasn’t into Britney Spears then, and now I am! As far as prom on Gossip Girl goes, it had a lot of drama, which is to be expected. Gossip Girl is a heightened reality, so it was probably the most fun prom I could have asked for. AND Blair was prom queen!
Charles: Cheers to that! Going from no prom to prom queen!

 

So much of the show is about drama and people not really being very nice to each other. What advice do you have for girls who might be having a hard time with mean girls at school?
L: I think a really important thing to remember is that whatever side you’re on, you can never be a bystander. You should always speak up for someone who is being bullied. I also think that it’s a part of growing up–kids can be supermean. Girls can be especially mean and pick on each other for things we can’t really help, like our looks, which is so silly. We should learn to be buddies, and–
C: Hold your sister up!
L: Yeah! Hold your sister up! I have girlfriends who I would literally do anything for no matter what. I remember in high school, people weren’t always nice to me–both boys and girls, especially the boys I liked. They would always be so mean to me! Now they’re like, ‘Oh, remember when we were friends in high school?’ And I’m thinking, No . . . I don’t remember it that way at all! I think it’s immaturity, and you have to just go against the grain, go above what they all say. I’m going on 25 years old and I’m just now growing up, learning about myself and who I am, and becoming comfortable with who I am. I think that comes with age.
C: I think the artists of today are often the geeks of yesterday. And it’s such an important thing to understand. If you feel different or awkward or that you don’t belong where you are, you shouldn’t get bogged down or mired down in that; you should try to celebrate yourself. As soon as you get to a place where you can embrace what’s different about yourself, the better you’re going to feel about it and the more positively people are going to receive you. Oftentimes when people see that you’re different or special, they don’t understand it. They feel jealous or insecure about not being as special as you are and take it out on you. So I really think it’s important to learn to hold yourself up and hold your sister up.

If you could go back and attend your high school prom, what do you think you’d wear?
L: I think it’s about doing your own thing. It’s so cool when girls make their own prom dresses or design their own dresses. But the dress depends on the prom theme! Depending on whether you’re going for a fun ethereal look or a nighttime look, there are different things you’d wear. Hairwise, we get to do so many different updos for the show, which is kind of the quintessential prom look. But on the show, the looks are way more low-key than the classic freeze-curled, crispy updo! I would definitely err on the more natural side, beautywise. I get to wear so many beautiful gowns and clothes on the show, I’m really lucky! So I really don’t know what I would wear.

Fair enough! What are some of your favorite designers/labels?
L: I love Missoni, which I’m wearing right now. I love Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton A LOT. I love Celine! Phillip Lim, I love the look of his clothes. But I also love Topshop! And I loved Lanvin for H&M, I thought it was really beautiful. So I really like a mixture. I love Chloe . . . I could go on and on . . . I love Alaia . . .

Back to the topic of hair. Which of the Herbal Essences products are your faves?
L: I love Hello Hydration–the way it smells. And I love Long Term Relationship, which smells great too. Charles says Hello Hydration smells like a vacation, and I think I have to agree! It smells like coconut.
C: A lot of Herbal Essences’ products have been reformulated with the hydroactivated silkening ingredient, but it also has this technology that allows us to include more hydrating elements than ever before, so it’s much better and more moisturizing for your hair. That’s how you get elasticity and shine in your hair, and it also helps your hair hold a style. Going back to prom hair, you don’t want a look that’s going to be stiff or sticky. We’re seeing a lot more updos that incorporate the hair’s natural texture, so there’s softness and freedom to it. I’m a big fan of the Long Term Relationship Leave-In because it’s a cream rather than a silicone, so it goes into the hair and nourishes it. It also has a heat protectant in it, so you can use it as a pre-styling product when using a curling iron and it won’t get stiff or sticky. If you have some natural texture in your hair, you can just bend it around a curling iron and it’ll give the hair’s wave more bounce. Then after shaping it a little, you can put your hair up and it’ll feel really loose and kind of romantic. I think that’s the coolest look you can do for prom, because your hair doesn’t seem like it just landed on your head!

I have to ask, what other beauty products do you love?
L: I’m a pretty simple girl. When I’m going “all out,” as I call it, I love using a red lipstick and a little bit of mascara. I think just those two things go a long way. I’ve really learned to embrace my natural hair texture, which is straight and fine, and it’s probably because ever since I’ve been using Hello Hydration, my hair isn’t frizzy; it’s so shiny, so soft, it smells amazing, and there’s very little I have to do to make it look good. I like for it to look a little undone, so I don’t really do much to it. Maybe I’ll put a little curl in it every once in a while. As far as my daily regimen, I’m pretty diligent about washing my face, keeping my skin clean, taking off all my makeup, and using sunscreen–it’s so important! I moisturize a lot in the winter. I like the heater at, like, 85 degrees in my house, so that totally dries out my skin! I have to use an oil and a lotion when I get out of the bath. As far as nails go, I just started getting the gel manicures–they stay on forever!

(A little side note: As I was leaving, I called out, “Bye y’all! Thanks!” Charles asked, “Y’all?! Where are you from?” I told them Austin, Texas, and Leighton wailed, “Oh, I’ve never been! I want to go!” I told them all about South by Southwest (stay tuned for coverage of my SXSW adventures), after which Charles said to Leighton, “You really need to get down there with your music. You need to do some shows there next year.” L, does that mean we can expect more from you musically? We hope so!

Källa