'Gossip Girl' actress Blake Lively

This week is going to be fun. I am publishing two interviews exclusively for Good Prattle with the two stars of the CW's upcoming sure-to-be-hit series Gossip Girl, based on the bestselling book series. I met the cast in August and they were all incredibly lovely, especially the incredible Penn Badgley (Dan Humphrey), whom I very unfortunately did not get the chance to interview. (I am tagging these posts as "interviews" rather than "transcripts" or "articles" because, while they are articles, they feature the interviews in their entireties.)

This interview is with the incredibly gracious Blake Lively, who plays Serena van der Woodsen, the It girl whose return from boarding school sparks a wave of controversy and plenty of scandal. I sit down with Blake to chat about working on television versus film, the pressure she's under to do justice to the immensely popular character, and living in New York.

So, you've mostly done movies before. How is working on a TV show different from working on a movie?
Blake Lively: It's mostly different because when you do a movie, you have three months for the entire arc of the character, but in a show it's only one segment of this character's life [per week], so an entire episode is just one segment, so you have a lot longer amount of time to develop a character and show all of their depth and dimension which is fun because you get to play with it more. It's also great cause you have the same cast and crew for a longer amount of time, it's good cause I always get really bonded with everyone, I get really sad when we have to leave after three months of movie. And [we have] different directors each week, so it's a lot more change.

How is the filming split up for TV shows?
BL: Well, we just do an episode a week, and on our last day of the week, we're simultaneously doing the next episode. So we'll have both of the directors, the director from the last episode and the upcoming one, working in two different locations with two different crews, and us actors are going back and forth, so that day is a crazy day. But a week per episode.

What is it like coming onto the cast of a show that's based off a really successful book series?
BL: It's a lot of pressure because my character Serena is "the it girl", so people have very high expectations, and nobody can ever be as good as your imagination, so I feel like it's only a disappointment for any fan. So, you know, that's pressure, but you don't really listen to it and worry about it, as long as you really understand the character and get the heart of it I think that you'll be able to portray it in a good way. And it's also exciting because people are looking forward to the show already, before it even comes out, because there's such a big awareness of the books.

A lot of people are saying that they think Gossip Girl is going to be, culturally, what the OC was, only on the east coast instead of the west coast. So how do you think Gossip Girl is going to be perceived—what kind of role will it play—and do you think that puts more pressure on it?
BL: I think it's similar to the OC in that we have the same show creators. So it has the teen melodrama but also the moments of wit and comic relief—whereas it came in the form of Seth Cohen, and the morals came from Seth and Ryan, we've got the Humphreys to really bring that. And my little brother is more of the Ryan of our show. So it has those similarities, but also it's different kinds of money, the OC was new money whereas we're old money, so we're more cultured and intellectual and well-traveled, so that's how our shows are different, but I think as far as just having your show out there, there is no show like the OC right now. There's no replacement for it. So I think that fan base that has nowhere to turn right now will find a home with us.

Do you think that makes the idea of doing this TV series more intimidating or more exciting?
BL: I think it's both. I think it's both, because the OC was so successful, so you want to give people a product that they're gonna be as excited over, so it's intimidating but also it's inspiring to work really hard and try to make it even better.

So, on the set, are you bonding with particular people because you might be filming with them more, or…?
BL: No, most days, whether or not we're all on the same scene together, we're all doing scenes at the same location, so we're all close, and it doesn't even matter what we do on set because we're all hanging out off the set anyway.

You're filming in New York; have you been to New York before or are you mostly in other areas?
BL: Well, I was born and raised in Los Angeles; I've visited New York a few times throughout my life, but never lived here before, so—we did the pilot and we filmed it around Manhattan. So it's really exciting to be here, so I'm happy!

So what do you like about being in New York?
BL: What's not to like about being in New York!? [I laugh.] I love that nothing ever closes, cause we can finish working at 12:30 at night and still be able to grab dinner and eat wherever we wanna eat. I love how easy it is to get together with friends.

Blake is called back to the set after that, and we say our goodbyes. I don't know how anybody can complain: this girl, gracious and grateful even when absolutely exhausted, is going to do nothing but justice to this show.

You can watch Gossip Girl on Wednesday nights at 9 PM EST (check your local listings). For more information visit the show's website.