Written by By Kristy Valenti, CNN
The actress who will reprise her role of Serena van der Woodsen on the upcoming “Gossip Girl” reboot has shared details about what she’s learned about the character, as well as those who still influence her.
Blake Lively, who’ll make her debut as Serena in the new iteration of the series, detailed the difficulties of playing another version of her character, which she filled with character flaws.
“Everyone I’ve ever had a problem with in real life ended up with the girl,” she explained to Page Six , explaining that one person’s passion for fashion, for example, wasn’t necessarily her ideal.
“Hair was a lot easier. I had to love it all,” she said.
“Serena is really difficult to play, it’s like trying to go back and play parts of friends from high school and younger who are still living and leading incredibly successful lives and not fall apart,” she said.
“I have the same problems — people who take themselves way too seriously,” she said. “Gossip Girl is the ultimate example of girls who would leave their own friends to become ‘indispensable’ in order to live up to somebody else’s idea of what they should be as a girl.”
“I’m in a good place in my life but I hope someone like her will end up kind of in the devil’s playground,” Lively added.
The actress has also shared some of the themes she’s learned while working on the show.
“I spent so much time connected to other people’s private lives and I am so grateful to have a career that protects me from that.”