Leighton Meester on Hot Rabbi husband Adam Brody, love of Gossip Girl role, and children

When Adam Brody became the internet’s boyfriend a few months back, people started acting weird around Leighton Meester. Of course, long before audiences became obsessed with Brody’s turn as a hot rabbi in Netflix’s Nobody Wants This, both he and Meester were cemented in the pop culture firmament as teen drama icons. She was Gossip Girl’s Blair Waldorf. He was The OC’s Seth Cohen. And it warmed everyone’s cold little hearts that actors from two beloved mid-aughts shows had ended up together in real life. But when the couple – who have been married since 2014 – showed up at the Golden Globes in January, the vibes were off. Reporters on the red carpet could not stop fawning over Brody during interviews, to the point where he had to step in and attempt to make things less awkward. “Your date is the Hot Rabbi,” an Entertainment Tonight host gushed to Meester. “And she’s my real shiksa goddess,” Brody duly pointed out. But in the 13 years since Gossip Girl wrapped, Meester has, by and large, remained unbothered by the media attention. The 39-year-old and her husband, 45, have both continued to work steadily, often in independent films or as supporting characters in larger projects. Her latest role is in the comedic police procedural Good Cop/Bad Cop, which starts streaming on Amazon Prime this month. The show has been airing on The CW Network in the United States since February but, despite earning strong reviews, is not that popular yet. Actor Luke Cook – the male half of the sibling detective duo on the series – attributes much of that to the fact the show was co-produced by a streaming company in Australia, his native country. “There’s a marketing budget in Australia, and there’s not been one behind the US launch,” says Cook. “I have family members and friends over there sending me pictures of posters of the show everywhere, and over here, there’s no sign that it’s on other than on social media.” But if Meester is the least bit salty about the show’s reception stateside she does not let on. “I’m super proud of this show,” she says. “I just really hope that if people watch it, they enjoy it. It’s my happy place.” The mother of two has just arrived from a table read for season two of Nobody Wants This, for which she will shoot a cameo in a few weeks. She says her scenes are mostly with sister characters Kristen Bell and Justine Lupe, rather than her husband. But they have acted together before – she thinks this is the seventh project for them – most recently on Good Cop/Bad Cop. “When the camera wasn’t on her and we were doing his coverage, I would be like, ‘Leighton, you’re not acting. You’re just watching Adam with a big smile on your face,’” recalls John Quaintance, the show’s creator. “They’re so supportive of each other that it’s both heartwarming and a little sick.” They have never played an on-screen couple, but Meester says she would be down for it. “I really like hanging out with him and working with him,” she says, her eyes getting that gooey look she had watching Brody take home the prize for best actor in a comedy series at the Critics Choice Awards in early February. Those who have worked with Meester would love her to have another moment in the sun. “I don’t think enough people have seen how great she is at comedy,” says Quaintance. “I think that first huge role probably hangs over her in the form of expectations that people think, ‘Oh, I’ll go see her on some sort of nighttime soap’. And I think the real Leighton is a lot more fun than that.” My son will see a stick and be like, ‘Can I take it home? It’s special.’ To see the world like that is pretty amazing Leighton Meester Meester acknowledges that she and her Gossip Girl character share startlingly little in common. She is definitely not into headbands. But you know that saying about ducks? They look calm on the surface of the water, but their feet are anxiously paddling away underneath. That feels like the thread connecting Meester and Blair Waldorf – they are both ambitious, the latter is just unabashed about showing it. As a girl, Meester did theatre in the US state of Florida. The only stage in town was a church, so the venue moonlighted as the host of Girl Scout meetings, potluck dinners and local productions. In fifth grade, Meester got a part in a play and went there every day after school for rehearsal. She loved it so much that she convinced her mother to let her attend a modelling and acting convention in the state of Georgia. After performing a made-up commercial for a handful of talent representatives, one urged her to move to New York for the summer to try her hand at professional auditions. So, at 11, she and her mother decamped to the city. She enrolled in junior high at Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School and soon landed a role on US crime drama Law & Order. She got to act with Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt, and the costume director liked her juice-stained shirt so much that she was ordered to keep it on for her scene. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles but returned to New York for Gossip Girl. The show ran from 2007 to 2012, when she was in her twentie, and it is a period she still feels tender about. “I feel so close to that person, almost now more than any other time in my life,” she says. “I feel very in touch with her, and I feel for her.” There has, of course, been a lot of speculation about the turmoil of the Gossip Girl years, particularly among the suddenly famous young and beautiful cast members. In January, after Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni entered into a public and contentious legal battle, clips resurfaced online of Meester and Lively. It has long been rumoured that the two did not get along, and old interviews posted online purported to spotlight steely interactions between the two of them. Asked how she felt about being brought up in relation to the Lively drama, Meester demurs. “Oh, I – I don’t want to talk about any of that,” she says. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The CW (@thecw) At the moment, she is focused on making her life as low-stress as possible. This summer she will stay in Los Angeles, partly because of work: she has booked a recurring role on HBO’s forthcoming Untitled Rachel Sennott Project. But that is about all she knows about how the next few months will go. After the Palisades fire in Los Angeles in January, which burned their home to the ground, she has focused on trying not to plan too far ahead. Her children help with that. Lately, they have been fascinated with something called Stick Nation, a subculture of people on TikTok who upload videos showcasing unique sticks they have found in the wild. “My son will see a stick and be like, ‘Can I take it home? It’s special.’ To see the world like that is pretty amazing,” says Meester. “I’m trying to spend those moments with them and absorb it. I was going to say trying to focus on the joy of the moment, but even sometimes the pain of it. It sounds strange, but I’ve really been enjoying this time.”

Leighton Meester on Hot Rabbi husband Adam Brody, love of Gossip Girl role, and children

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Seemingly eternally unfazed by attention, Leighton Meester reflects on fame, family and roles on shows like Gossip Girl and Good Cop/Bad Cop

Seemingly eternally unfazed by attention, Leighton Meester reflects on fame, family and roles on shows like Gossip Girl and Good Cop/Bad Cop