Blake Lively vs. Leighton Meester: Who deserves the attention
Back when people actually watched Gossip Girl, the question often posed was: Are you a Blair or a Serena?
Most girls said Serena, and why wouldn’t they? Serena is tall with a bubbly, spit-fire personality, whose golden locks fall so perfectly down her size four body.
I, however, was always a Blair fan. Not because she had an insane wardrobe or somehow brought headbands back into style. No, Blair was the favorite because the girl playing her managed to take a one-dimensional character and make her real.
Blake Lively is a lot of things: stunning, funny and obviously charming if she calls Christian Louboutin one of her best friends and Ryan Reynolds her boyfriend. One thing she is not, however, is a good actress. No matter what the part is, Lively seems to literally pick up what has been given to her and smash it into the ground into tiny little pieces.
Her role on Gossip Girl as Serena is easy work: pout here, smile there, look pretty in a $4,000 dress while traveling around the city. It’s not that Lively does a bad job, it’s just that she does no job. In life, she is Serena van der Woodsen: a girl who has skirted responsibility and has had lots of luck in life because of how attractive she is. Leighton Meester (Blair), on the other hand, actually had to act.
Meester hasn’t been getting a lot of press lately. She attempted to make an album – her voice is actually pretty decent. She also has taken a bunch of supporting roles in comedies like Date Night (2010) and Going the Distance (2010). She also starred as the roommate-from-hell in The Roommate (2011). But for some reason, Meester isn’t getting the attention she deserves.
And who is? Lively. She has been on every red carpet known to man, rocking designs sent to her personally. She seems to be racking up the film roles and some of the films have been good; but for every The Town (2010), there’s a Green Lantern (2011).
Next up for Lively? The Oliver Stone film, Savages, is set for release this coming July, and while on paper, the film may sound intriguing: two drug dealers go on a violent rampage to get back their shared girlfriend from a Mexican drug cartel, the trailer itself is just a hot mess, and Lively’s the worst part.
Seriously, I don’t know if she rocks her auditions and then just fails the actual movie miserably, but this girl somehow gets amazing parts and just slaughters them. The trailer of Savages shows her having a grand ol’ time being sexy and carefree with two guys, even her voiceover tells us so.
Perhaps I’m wrong and Savages will turn out to be a critical masterpiece. From the looks of things though, it seems as if Lively will continue skirting by her looks for the rest of her career.
I agree with this article. It is also true that even though Leighton can act better than Blake, Blake gets better roles. Maybe its because of her body. lol.
Also, that’s the wrong link to another movie called The Savages a few years back.
Here’s the correct one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIPpdEjORas&feature=related
I love how this article is in the Daily Trojan lol. I would have expected this type of article to be on a tabloid website but it’s amusing. Not quite sure why there’s so much antagonism against this article really.
I see what the author is saying and I do agree with her overall view. She probably could have compared the two actresses better in order to get a more rounded, persuasive article but it’s just a blog piece.
On Gossip Girl where they both had breakout roles, Leighton’s character Blair Waldorf has more depth than Lively’s one-dimensional character. As for acting, Lively has not proven herself yet as an actress, only as a really good-looking actor who dresses well. Meester has done more supporting roles in different genres and has branched herself out more, and is now veering towards comedy now which is interesting. Only time will tell who is really more talented because they both have not done that much work yet.
Spit an actress to support the other is a bad way to be a critic. From your column I see that you saw only the two mentioned films which starred Blake Lively, even on that basis you bring a conclusion. Other movies are not even mentioned, and Blake Lively in them played a very demanding role. You are not remembered – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 1 and 2, Elvis and Anabelle, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and Accepted (for which she received an award Holliwood Lifes Breakthrough Award). If you were a real critic would be fair to both actresses, because they are very talented and promising. If you look a little better TV series Gossip Girl you would see that these two are good colleagues and friends who work together for 5 years.
I can’t believe this was written by a university student. Whomever is financing your education is wasting their money. You don’t know Meester or Lively personally, and neither has a huge body of work for you to make such definitive judgments about them as people or extent of their abilities as actors. But if you’re such fan of Leighton’s, why don’t you spend your precious time and space talking about HER? Your need to slag another actress for an entire column to prop up your favorite doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in your opinion.