The star of TV’s ‘Gossip Girl’ takes her first movie lead role in a new suspense thriller
ACADEMY AWARD-NOMINATED director Christian E. Christiansen (“Råzone”) crafts a finely tuned tale of madness and role reversal in “The Roommate.” It is packed with ingenious twists and heart-stopping surprises as Sara (Minka Kelly), a naïve college freshman, begins to suspect that her roommate, Rebecca (Meester), is not what she seems to be.

“Leighton was the first person we cast for this movie,” says Christiansen. “And she is a fantastic actress. The role of Rebecca requires an actress who can go from normal to insane in very little time. Leighton did a lot of research for the role, trying to figure out what kind of person this would be.”

Bouncing ideas

Meester signed on after reading an early draft of the script and speaking to Christiansen at length about the movie he wanted to make. “He was so open to everything,” she says. “It was really fun to watch the process of developing it. Everybody was bouncing ideas off one another.”

The edge and rawness of Christiansen’s earlier films won her over. “His style is not overly manicured,” says Meester. “Christian does what I think of as ‘ninja’ directing. He doesn’t spell anything out. He just plants an idea in your head.”

Meester, who has been a successful actress since her early teens, has never been through the roommate experience herself. “Being assigned the person you’re going to live with for the next eight or nine months sounds a lot like a blind date,” she says.

“It’s strange to think that when you come to college, you have to live with someone you don’t know at all. The idea is disconcerting, and a great jumping-off point for this story. I think everyone will be scared and intrigued.”

The role made tremendous demands on Meester, physically and emotionally. “It wasn’t an easy movie to make, but it was always interesting,” she says.

She delved into the character’s psyche, developing a personal history for Rebecca and consulting with psychiatrists to learn more about what makes her tick.

“This is the story of the psychological deterioration of a human being who has no real identity and is trying to appropriate another person’s,” she says. “The character has so much depth.”

At the start of the movie, Rebecca seems like the ideal friend for Sara. “She’s actually a good influence on her,” says Meester. “Rebecca shows Sara all around the city, not just the clubs and parties. But she grossly misinterprets the relationship, which is the beginning of a lot of problems. As they get closer, Rebecca starts to lose touch with reality.” • Read full story…

The Roommate is a psychological thriller about a deranged college freshman (Leighton Meester) who becomes obsessed with her new roommate (Minka Kelly).

Tickets can be purchased at the official site:
http://www.theroommate-movie.com/

FACEBOOK APP:
-Add The Roommate as a friend and watch as Rebecca, Leighton Meester’s character, takes over your Facebook profile: http://apps.facebook.com/therooommateapp/

ROOMMATE WANTED Phone Number:
-Call Rebecca 1-866-666-6001 & get a FREE ringtone

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/TheRoommate

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/RoommateMovie

Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/RoommateMovie

I have uploaded new event photos of Leighton Meester attended at “The Roomate” Los Angeles Special Screening at Soho House on January 23, 2011 in West Hollywood, California.

GALLERY LINK:

• (x086) Events in 2011: “The Roommate” Los Angeles Special Screening

I’ve added two new clips from Leighton’s upcoming thriller movie, “The Roommate”.

I have uploaded new wallpaper, promotional stills & official site screenshot of Leighton Meester in ‘The Roommate‘. Check out their official site, twitter & facebook.

GALLERY LINKS:

• (x001) The Roommate: Wallpapers
• (x005) The Roommate: Stills
• (x006) The Roommate: Official Site

I’ve added new poster of Leighton Meester for “The Roommate” movie to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:

• (x001) The Roommate: Posters

There’s a sense of voyeurism, peering through an artificial dorm room window, watching the women inside and listening in on their conversation. Even knowing that it’s fake, face the right direction and you’d be sold that you’re standing in an average college hallway in Anytown, USA. Turn a corner, though, or look to the ceiling and the set reveals itself; a look-a-like dorm constructed on a soundstage at the Sony Pictures lot.

The ladies in question are Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester, best known for their starring television roles on Friday Night Lights and Gossip Girl, respectively. Their new film is The Roommate, a thriller that director Christian E. Christiansen promises will be chock full of Hitchcock-style suspense. In it, Kelly stars as a Sara, an art student attending a Los Angeles-based college. She’s randomly assigned a roommate in Meester’s Rebecca and, at first, the pair become fast friends. As the relationship develops, however, we learn of Rebecca’s mental instability, pushing her to a potentially deadly devotion to her new roommate.

Standing with a small group of fellow journalists in the soundstage shadows, we’re all creepers to a bedroom scene that has Sara coming home to find Rebecca disheveled and hysterical. She’s been attacked, Rebecca tells Sara, by a stranger on the street. He knocked her down and hit her and she barely got away. Concerned, Sara pleads with Rebecca to call the police, but Rebecca refuses. She just wants Sara to stay in tonight and to not leave her alone.

“It’s not a psychological disorder,” says Leighton, who found herself doing some extensive medical research before playing the part, ”it’s a character disorder…It’s all neurological, but it can be helped I think. I talked to a couple of doctors about it and people who specialize in characters disorders like that. Nothing is set in stone so it’s really hard to say exactly what goes into being that kind of person. I was asking doctors, ‘Well, what happened to her do you think? Was she abused or something?’ And he’s like ‘no, not necessarily. Nobody had to have any kind of past or anything. Somebody from a terrible family could grow up great and vice-versa’. In her case, she does come from what seems like a pretty good family. She just has this issue. It could even be genetic, an imbalance in chemicals.”

“We know Leighton from ‘Gossip Girl’ where she is kind of the bad girl,”explains Christiansen. ”We wanted to bring that in. We didn’t want to bring in Gossip Girl, but we wanted to bring some of those qualities. No doubt people are going to see something quite different from her.”

Kelly, then, is tasked with providing a counterbalance to Leighton’s subtle madness. The character of Sara grew up in Des Moines, Iowa and has never been to a big city before. Though The Roommate is set is Los Angeles, Christiansen is quick to point out that geographical specifics never play a big role. The fact that the setting is major change for Sara’s character is the important fact. • Read full story…

Finally, ‘The Roommate’ trailer is finally premieres online on Yahoo. I’ve added HD screen captures & video trailer of the movie.

GALLERY LINK:

• (x040) The Roommate: Screen Captures > Trailer

Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly explain the story of their new film, straight from the set on October 27, 2009.

When you think of Aly & AJ, one of the last names that might come to mind is Alfred Hitchcock. And when you think of Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly, blood and gore isn’t exactly the order of the day. But next September, all these diverse forces will come together for “The Roomate,” a movie a “Single White Female” storyline and hopes to terrify a new generation with a classic scene revolving around two key words: bloody bellybutton.

“I think it’s exciting to be able to continue to do our music, but at the same time branch out into our own acting careers,” explained Aly Michalka recently, proud of not only her and AJ’s new band name (78violet), but also movie careers that recently had Aly shoot “Roommate” with Leighton, Minka and Cam Gigandet. “‘Roommate’ was super cool to shoot with Leighton and Minka. They were sweet girls, and I had a fun time doing my crazy shower scene.”

Um, shower scene? “Oh, we did an ode to Hitchcock,” Aly noted of the film, which has Minka’s college student paired with the mentally-unhinged Leighton, who seeks to become her only friend by scaring away those around her, including Aly as Tracy. “There’s this crazy shower scene with me and Leighton, and she ends up ripping out my belly-button in the scene.”

Talk about bring Vivian Leigh’s classic “Psycho” death into the 21st century — but how, you may ask, does someone rip out another person’s belly button?

“I have a belly-button ring in, and she rips it out,” Aly explained. “It’s very intense; we shot it in one whole day.”

Always one to sacrifice for her craft, Aly told us that she was as wrinkly as a raisin by the time the shot was in the can. “I was in the shower for like 12 hours straight,” she laughed. “But it was fun, and it was something that I won’t forget. It’s great to be able to mix it up and do different roles and do different projects that you’re really passionate about.”

Stay tuned for “The Roommate” in September 2010, and you can look forward to holding your own belly in pain. “I love [acting], and being about to do my music at the same time; it’s awesome,” she explained. “AJ and I will always do our music together. But as actresses, we want to be taken seriously separately and when we come together for our music that’s a whole other story.”

Source: MTV News