The psychological thriller that ruined Leighton Meester's career
When actress Leighton Meester first burst onto the scene, she starred in The CW's hit series "Gossip Girl," playing wealthy and manipulative private school student Blair Waldorf in her breakout role. Also starring Blake Lively, "Gossip Girl" ran for six seasons from 2007 to 2012, and was a huge hit for the network, as well as a career start for many of the cast members. Some of the show's cast have become major stars, with Lively starring in "A Simple Favor" and "The Rhythm Section" earning her extreme praise for her performance, while Penn Badgley landed another career-changing role years later. . "Gossip Girl" with the Netflix series "You". But for some of the show's other actors, their lives after "Gossip Girl" haven't been nearly as fruitful.
An example of this is Meester, who was expected by many to become a big star. During her time on "Gossip Girl," Meester tried to branch out and try new types of characters, starring in the drama "Country Strong" opposite Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as playing small roles in the romantic comedies "Date Night" and "Going the Distance." ». . But one role in particular, playing the title character in the thriller "The Roommate" in 2011, was so poorly received that it basically ruined her movie career, and Meester hasn't really recovered since.
The critically hated movie The Roommate sent Meester's career downhill
In 2011, shortly before she finished "Gossip Girl," Meester starred in the movie "The Roommate" alongside Minka Kelly. In the film, Kelly's character, Sara, leaves for college in Los Angeles, CA, and meets her new roommate, Rebecca (Meester). At first everything goes well, but soon Rebecca begins to act strangely, copying Sara and pushing away anyone who might come between them, sometimes violently. Things quickly escalate when Sara realizes how dangerous her new roommate is, but can she escape Rebecca's obsession? You can probably guess how this story ends.
Featuring two talented lead actresses, "The Roommate" should have been good, but it wasn't. In fact, the film has a 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and with over 25,000 ratings, an audience score of 27%. Unfortunately for Meester, it really seems that the film's failure had nothing to do with her acting talent, as some critics, such as Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times, paused in their review to comment positively on her performance, with Olsen highlighting how through "rapid tone changes from manic to hurt...[Meester] shows how much more he's capable of." Despite that, the rest of the film failed her, and »The Roommate« had a huge impact on her career path.
After more movie failures with "The Oranges" and "That's My Boy," Meester attempted to return to television with the show "Making History," but even that was canceled after the first season was cut to nine episodes (TVLine). . Well, the 2018 comedy series "Single Parents" was popular, now it's been canceled too, so we'll just have to wait and see Meester's next move.
