Leighton Meester has soft spot for characters who 'can't quite get themselves together'

Leighton Meester has a soft spot for characters who "can't quite get themselves together".

The actress, best known for her role as queen bee Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl, has explained that she is drawn to playing flawed characters.

In an interview with Bustle, Leighton said that she often finds herself playing women who are "a little emotionally stunted, or make poor choices, or can't quite get themselves together".

She cited her latest characters, Lou in her new comedy-drama series Good Cop/Bad Cop and Nell in the upcoming second season of The Buccaneers, as perfect examples of this type of character.

"Most of the time, there's some sort of origin or backstory or reason why they're like that," she told the publication. "Like, this person doesn't have a dark heart, but they have this insecurity or something they haven't quite figured out or examined, and it's up to me to figure out what's causing them pain."

Leighton continued, "And I inevitably find myself in the role, almost always. I mean, that's it. That's the real gift. Of this industry or whatever."

The Weekend Away actress added that playing complex characters can help her to understand herself better.

"It's so helpful in terms of discovering things about yourself when you're trying to discover something about somebody else," she said. "You're like, 'Oh, no, in trying to embody this other person I just learned about myself and how I process things and how I see the world or how I'm actually really f**ked up and not good at this thing or whatever.'"