This weekend Jessica trades Fendi for fish as one of the nubile spring break-ers “Piranha 3D’s” pack of carnivorous swimmers sets their sites on. But Jessica snagged the main female role of Kelly, so unlike the countless other scantily clad bimbos just itching to take their tops off, Jessica will probably live to see the end credits — and potentially a sequel.

Which may or may not be music to Jessica’s ears since she’s not a big fan of water in the first place. So why would someone who doesn’t care for H2O spend two months submerged in it? Why don’t I let her tell you.

PopWrap: What were your first thoughts when a script landed on your desk with the title “Piranha 3D?”
Jessica Szohr: At first I was like, “Oh ‘Piranha,’ they did it years ago,” but then they started telling me who else was attached and I watched some of the director’s other movies — his vision was very cool. Also, Kelly is a very different character than Vanessa, who I’ve been playing for three years now, so with all of those things I thought, “why not – let’s go have fun, get scared, be in the water and ride on a boat for two months.” [laughs]

PW: Are you a big fan of the water?
Jessica: No, I’m really not. I tried surfing a couple of years ago and got knocked over by a wave and was underneath the water for so long. So I definitely feel that. Obviously lakes don’t have big waves, but that’s not the scary part.

PW: Right, it’s more about not being able to see what’s in them.
Jessica: Exactly! You don’t know what is underneath you or how close it is. They’re dark and weird. And since I’m not a big water person to begin with, it’s odd that I ended up doing a film for two and a half months in the water.

PW: So how do you describe your character, Kelly?
Jessica: Kelly is one of the locals, born and raised in Lake Victoria. She’s a really good girl who isn’t phased by the people who come for spring break and do these crazy things because she’s seen it her whole life. She doesn’t usually get involved in it, but Kelly runs into her crush, and once I find out that he’s going to partake in all this spring break stuff, I decide to go along. That’s when everything kind of hits the fan and she enters this crazy world.

PW: And that leads to you delivering what could possibly be the first instance of vomiting in 3D.
Jessica: [laughs] I do! And when I think that’s going to be spraying out on the audience, it’s so gross. I was very curious to see, as an actor, how 3D would be different than making a 2D movie and really, from an actor’s point of view, there was nothing I had to change.

PW: What about the fish effects — did you have any stunt fish on set?
Jessica: No, we didn’t work with one fish throughout the whole thing. There’s a scene where I’m fighting them with a frying pan because it’s the only thing she can find to defend herself with and all the stunt men were aiming water guns at me so I knew where to swing.

PW: That had to be a bit of a jarring experience coming off filming “Gossip Girl.”
Jessica: It was definitely different. I just had to put myself in the situation and be as organic as possible. And to be honest, there were some scenes that we filmed at 2am in this freezing lake, so when people ask if it was hard to keep screaming I say, “not really because that situation is scary – not knowing what’s swimming underneath you. We had a lot of underwater shots.

PW: As someone who admittedly doesn’t love the water, how did you handle those?
Jessica: It’s scary training to be underwater and learning to hold your breath for two minutes while breathing through holes. There was one scene that took forever for me to get down because I had to swim down into this little glass box under the boat and I was really scared I’d get stuck. It was very challenging.

PW: Everyone who has seen the movie says it’s a brainless, super fun ride — do you feel like it achieves what you set out to?
Jessica: The movie is a fun, really scary entertaining summer popcorn movie that hopefully people will have as much fun watching as we did filming. Our job is to entertain. To make people laugh and help them realize things about relationships, family and at the end of the day, in any story told, there are lessons to be learned – even if it’s about killer piranha!

PW: So what was it like when you went back to “Gossip Girl” having just spent two months fending off imaginary fish?
Jessica: The cool thing I’ve realized doing my last few films is that it’s really great getting into character, breaking them down, coming up with a backstory and bringing them to life. You do a film for a short time period — you put it all out there and move on. We’re going into our fourth season on “Gossip Girl” and I love playing Vanessa, but with TV you play the same person over and over.

PW: Last season Vanessa went to Haiti — does the same girl comeback?
Jessica: She comes back to some surprises off the bat, so the issue of what went down with Dan and Serena is kind of on the backburner because she’s got to deal with what’s in front of her. To me, Vanessa is the most relatable character on the show, and I’m not saying that just because I play her – she has a normal job, she doesn’t have parents who give her $5,000 handbags. She’s opinionated and has a big voice. I like that she’s never changed to fit in, she always stood her ground and kept her morals for the most part. But she’s always there for everyone else, so I’m hoping that as a result of going to Haiti, she won’t get taken advantage of as much. But we’ll see what the writers come up with – you never know!

Source: NY Post

“I’m actually a very shy person – that’s a big secret, so don’t tell,” Lively tells actor Ben Affleck in the September issue of Interview magazine. “But being in [acting] classes pushed me to break out of that a little bit. It’s like nature versus nurture: I’m naturally very shy, but I was brought up in a way where I had to get up and get out of that.”

Lively, 23, had to force herself out of her comfort zone when she began working on the upcoming thriller “The Town.” On her very first day of work, the actress says she had to film a sex scene with Affleck, who also stars in and directed the film.

The blond beauty also takes her acting skills out onto the red carpet, where she says she’s not as comfortable as she may appear.

“With acting, I think half of it is just acting confident,” she tells the mag. “We stand on these red carpets and pose in these dresses, but we’re all only so confident. It doesn’t mean we think we’re great looking or anything. It’s all a facade.”

Coming from a family of actors, Lively credits her upbringing for the maturity she now encompasses.

“I have a big, close, loving family, and they’re all from the South, but because so many of them are actors, everyone was very normal about it,” she explains. “It was just like any job to them. They always came home and talked about it around the dinner table the way any family talks about work, but it wasn’t anything special.”

In fact, the actress jokes that her leap into Hollywood is due to everyday perks found around the movie set.

“I don’t feel like I ever had any sort of Hollywood upbringing,” she says. “I got to travel and visit my family on set. I got to eat craft service. I actually think that was the reason I got into acting: the free food. I literally remember on my first job being like, ‘Yes! I get to have craft service every day!’”

Source: NY Daily News

[09] Cosmopolitan Spain – July 2010

Blake > Magazine Scans > Vogue – June 2010

And since there is that wee little one on the way, there will be no time wasted in making Dorota an honest woman.

Next week, the trusted Waldorf employee will walk down the aisle with a little help from her adopted family. Zuzanna Szadkowski, who plays the character, gives Korbi TV the scoop on what to expect…

Congratulations on the engagement.
ZS: [Laughs] Thank you! I’m really excited about it. I think [next week's hour] is going to be a great episode. Basically, it results in this huge, gorgeous kind of Russian-Polish hybrid of a wedding at the Astoria World Manor, which is made fabulous, “Gossip Girl” style. It’s actually a big event and for Dorota it’s an opportunity to don a glamorous gown. It’s certainly a family affair with Blair as a bridesmaid and Cyrus and Eleanor in attendance. It brings everyone together for these major festivities.

All our favorite Upper East-siders have been invited?
ZS: Oh yeah. There’s a lot of action against the backdrop of the wedding and everyone’s involved, basically.

Dorota is always doing favors for Blair and getting her out of bad situations. Is this Blair’s chance to pay Dorota back?
ZS: There would be no wedding without Blair and Chuck and, for once, they’re kind of scrambling around on her behalf.

In the last episode, we saw what seemed to be a Chuck and Blair breakup. We have to assume that the aftermath of that drama will surrounding the wedding, yes?
ZS: Well, I think, you know, there were some very bad things that happened last Monday, but I’m with Dorota in that we both have a lot of hope for Chuck and Blair to work things out and we love the Chuck-Blair dynamic.

So Dorota is staying on Team Chuck.
ZS: [Laughs] Yeah, Dorota is always primarily Team Blair, whatever makes Blair happy, and I know that she really likes them together.

Of course, Dorota has a kid of her own coming now. Will we get to watch her go into labor and do the whole delivery thing?
ZS: [Laughs] We’ll have to wait and see on that one, but you definitely get a [good look at] the baby bump in the wedding gown, so the baby is there and is a big part of the ceremony. It’s amazing because Dorota gets to wear this gorgeous wedding dress which is a collaboration between Eleanor and Jenny Humphrey that puts the [pregnancy on display] in full regalia.

Do you think the baby will ultimately change Dorota’s role in Blair’s life?
ZS: I don’t know, I think Dorota has a lot of maternal instincts and I think the baby will just pump up her level of love and giving. There’s still plenty of room for Miss Blair.

I also wanted to say that I think it’s really cool that Miss Blair — also known as Leighton Meester — has this amazing singing career as well and on Monday, we’ll be treated to one of her singles that’s going to be included in the episode. “Your Love’s A Drug” will be part of the show and I can’t wait to see how it’s incorporated. There are so many surprises and so many beautiful details in the wedding, it’s really exciting.

source: blog.zap2it.com