Leighton Meester is Blonde

Leighton Meester was a blonde during her pre-Gossip Girl days. And you can now check out her acting chops while sporting blonde hair in her new movie, Remember the Daze, which is in limited release now.

Jess Manafort, the writer/director/co-producer of Remember the Daze, has said, “We cast Leighton before Gossip Girl. She came in on the first day of casting, as one of eight girls, and when she walked in I was like ‘this girl’s going to be huge, I want this girl, I love this girl!’ I told everyone I found a movie star.”

Ms. Meester tells Elle Girl she loved experimenting with her hair color back in the day: “I dyed it every color. I dyed it fire engine red and that didn’t work out. It also had it black and red streaks.”

Also pictured here is Leighton’s costar Shahine Ezell, who’s also producing her new debut album.

FYI: To help clarify some rumors that broke earlier this week, costar Nan Zhang never left Gossip Girl because of Leighton. Nan exclusively told JustJared.com herself!

She said, “First, Leighton had absolutely nothing to do with my leave. Leighton, along with everybody else on the cast and set, have been nothing but wonderful to me throughout my involvement with the show. The writer’s strike left me no choice but to return to [school]. It was truly a difficult decision that I had no choice but to make in leaving the show. I am grateful for my opportunity, and I loved every second of participating in such a great experience. The entire cast and everyone tied to the show are simply incredible, amazing people who I am thankful to have worked with. I couldn’t have asked to work with a better or nicer or more fun group of people.”

And Nan isn’t even enrolled at Brown University. Creator Josh Schwartz didn’t even have his story straight when he spoke on the Gossip Girl panel at Paley Fest ‘08! Whoops!