A far cry from her role as a pretentious Upper East Side socialite in “Gossip Girl,” actress Leighton Meester is trying her hand at the big screen in the upcoming psychological thriller The Roommate. Meester plays an insane college freshman, Rebecca, who becomes obsessed with her roommate, played by Minka Kelly. The Technician had an opportunity to speak to Meester about her upcoming film and how it personally affected her.

Technician: What kind of an impact did playing Rebecca have on you?

Meester: Watching it years after you made it is really interesting because you do remember certain times and certain days that you filmed different scenes, but this movie is strange for me because I feel I have a bit of amnesia about it. I can’t say it wasn’t fun, it was, but it was also intense I think for everyone. It was a really hard time for me because I try to share something in common with her or try to understand her motives and try to relate to her in some way. It was extremely difficult for me to do that with her starting off because of how she unravels. From the outside she seems like a really good friend, good person. She’s understanding, she’s artistic, she’s trustworthy but then eventually she just completely loses that.

So during filming I did my best to maintain and I was really lucky because all I had to do was work on this movie every day. I didn’t have any other obligations at the time so I got to be really involved and focused, which really was a pleasure. Some of the things that I had to do were really disturbing for me. Particularly a scene involving a kitchen, so it was an intense experience. I’ll say that.

Technician: What attracted you to this particular script?

Meester: Well, the character. I love to break down and see where I can relate to somebody and find the humanity in them, and I want to care about my character and love my character. It was not easy with Rebecca to say the least, but I think that if you track how she is, if you track her actions they’re always motivated by something internal and obviously not based in reality at all.

So I thought it was really interesting, and I also think that it’s a movie and a film track that most people can relate to. It’s about friends, not necessarily even just roommates. I mean they’re friends and it goes terribly wrong because one person is really invested in the friendship and becomes unhealthily attached to her friend. So I think a lot of people have been there, probably not to this extreme, but I know that I’ve had friends that are just a little bit too nosy and needy and in your space and in your business.

So I think it’s interesting and then of course I’m so proud of how the movie turned out. I think it’s so scary and it’s sexy and it’s fun and it’s exciting — it’s a ride.

Technician: How was the role of Rebecca similar to or different from your role as Blair on “Gossip Girl?”

Meester: It couldn’t have been more different. The entire experience altogether was different, but the character, she is from a different place. She has a different background, different parents. You know Rebecca has a history of having a mental disorder. It’s not at all the same as what I play day to day on my show, which is a pleasure to break from that and do something different, but it’s also so incredibly different from who I am as a person as well of course.

She’s not making any decisions based on reality. She doesn’t find pleasure in pleasurable things. She only does anything, including interact with anybody physically or verbally, to gain something for herself, and she uses her intelligence, her sexuality to gain control of other people. Meanwhile she doesn’t have any control of her own mind, so obviously it’s a very far cry from what I do on the show.