Adam Brody: I thought Leighton Meester was a bad person because of her Gossip Girl character

30 March 2021

Adam Brody assumed his wife Leighton Meester wasn’t a “good person” at first because of her ‘Gossip Girl’ character.

Adam Brody

The ‘O.C.’ star tied the knot with 34-year-old Leighton in 2014, but has admitted that when they first met over a decade ago he wasn’t sure what type of person she was, because the only reference he had was her role as devious socialite Blair Waldorf on ‘Gossip Girl’.

Recalling the history of their romance, he said: "I was on ‘The O.C.’, and that was coming to an end and Gossip Girl was starting. Josh Schwartz produced both shows. The first time we met, that whole cast was eating at Canter's [in Los Angeles] and I lived at Canter's for, like, my entire 20s. I was leaving and he introduced all of us and then [I] bumped into her, like, two or three times over the next couple of years.

“Then we did this movie together, ‘The Oranges’. I was seeing someone at the time. So we met kind of through mutual work friends off and on. We didn't get together until about a year after that movie, when I was single.

“[I was always] very attracted [to Leighton], she's a heavenly creature. [But I] had no idea whether she was a good person or not. And in fact, [I] assumed she probably wasn't for, like, the first handful of years I didn't know her … just because [of her role on] ‘Gossip Girl’.”

In fact, 41-year-old Adam didn’t get to know the real-life Leighton until they started dating, when he realised she is the “strongest” person he knows.

He added: "And come to find out she's literally Joan of Arc. She is the strongest, best person I know. She is my moral compass and North Star, and I just can't say enough good things about her character."

And the ‘Promising Young Woman’ star also credited Leighton – with whom he has five-year-old daughter Arlo, and a son who was born in September – with making him want to be better.

He told the ‘Anna Faris is Unqualified’ podcast: "Marriage, being an adult and having a family, it was a new frontier for me where before that, I kind of felt, like, I don't have to change. If you don't like me, then you don't like me. This is who I am, and it's unreasonable to ask anyone to change anything. But, if you're in a long commitment and you've got responsibilities, I do understand now — it's still a struggle — it's healthy to kind of adjust a few things."