American actress Leighton Meester has revealed she hopes to release new music this year as she has a “bunch of stuff written and recorded”.
Meester, 35, starred as teenage socialite Blair Waldorf in the hit drama series Gossip Girl.
In addition to acting, Meester branched into music in 2009 and released two singles, Somebody to Love and Your Love’s a Drug.
Her debut album Heartstrings was released in 2014.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan UK, Meester said she will “hopefully” be releasing new music this year.
“The short answer is yes. Hopefully soon. I have a bunch of stuff written and recorded and ready to go.
“It’s just a matter of when I can release it and when I can make time for that.
“I had it ready and set to go, and then the pandemic, and I’ve had another child so I thought, this isn’t the right timing. I think that the timing will probably happen this year, hopefully.”
Meester, who stars in new Netflix thriller The Weekend Away, told Cosmopolitan UK about how her personal experience of motherhood helped inform her latest role.
She said: “I really was excited about playing a new mother who’s having a weekend away for the first time, which is the most exciting and really the most terrifying prospect when you have a new baby.
“So I felt like that was the kind of character that I could very easily relate to, slip into, and have compassion for.
“When I got the script breakdown it was like a 35-year-old [woman] with a 10-month-old [baby], and I was like, ‘That is exactly me.’
Meester shares two children with her husband, actor and musician Adam Brody.
Comparing her own experiences to those of her character Beth in The Weekend Away, Meester said: “The element of being away from your child is very different from when you’re with your child.
“At least for me. When anything happens, if your kid gets hurt or something happens, that’s your number one concern.
“You have to be the grown up, which is really hard to be even when you are the grown up. [My character Beth] is not with her kid, and that would drive me mad.
“I would be devastated to be in a situation like that and be thousands of miles away from my kid.”
The full interview is available on Cosmopolitan UK’s YouTube channel.
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