Taylor Momsen

On her new movie, ..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Paranoid Park, and the next season of Gossip Girl

by Holly Siegel

The lovely Taylor Momsen (that's Jenny Humphrey to you) spoke to me after school, at a diner frequented by her friends at Professional Performing Arts School, the New York City high school that has seen Claire Danes, Britney Spears and Alicia Keys walk through it's halls. PPAS is about three miles from the type of schools that Gossip Girl's Constance Billiard is based on, and even further from Oregon's Burnside Skate Park, where her new movie, Paranoid Park (directed by Gus Van Sant), was filmed. In the movie, Momsen plays Jennifer, the girlfriend of the main character, Alex, played by Gabe Nevins, who is amazing in his first role. Here, Momsen tells us about filming the movie, high school in New York, the next season of Gossip Girl, what fragrance she's wearing and more.

ELLEgirl: Tell us about Paranoid Park.

Taylor Momsen: Well, the script it was sent to me through my management, and I loved it. It was funny though, because originally I thought, "this is the beginning of the script" - it was 33 pages – "when are they releasing the end?" I was like, "how is this the film?" I made a tape and sent it to Gus [Van Sant]. The cool thing about working with Gus was it was a lot of improve. You became your character very fully. Because it was only 33 pages, there were days that you didn't know what you were doing and you just showed up. I took two weeks of intensive bareback horseback riding and filmed a scene where I was riding and then it never made into the film. It was so great as an actress - I really had to fully become my character. He would sit you down before a scene and say, "this is what happened, this is what's going to happen." He'd say "go, be her." That was so different than Gossip Girl, where it's so scripted.

ELLEgirl: Where did you film?

Taylor Momsen: Portland, Oregon. It was cold and rainy. It's actually a park in Portland, or at least in Oregon. It's called Burnside Skate Park, and it's true that the skaters made it themselves (illegally). I wanted to see it because all the scenes take place at that park. I was driving around with the guys in the film and I was like "take me by the park I haven't seen it yet!" and I go to get out and they're like, "NOOO! Stay in the car! You can't get out! It's too sketchy!" That's what made part of the film so authentic - it wasn't a set it's just how it is.

ELLEgirl: Did you learn how to skateboard while on set?

Taylor Momsen: Um, a little bit but… I kind of dropped it when I moved to New York. I still have my board. The guys taught me a little bit. Can't do any tricks or anything though. I can balance. I can stay on.

ELLEgirl: How is your character different than Jenny Humphrey?

Taylor Momsen: Well, they have the same name. Jennifer in Paranoid Park because she represents everything fake, everything superficial. She's self-obsessed, popular, queen bee, head cheerleader, b-tch. She's so worried about what people are saying about her. Everyone knows one of those girls. Jenny is the opposite, she's not the popular one she's a little bit different - striving to be that girl. She's not a clone of everyone, she's sweet and nice and really smart. They both think about what they are doing to gain popularity in their school. Jenny thinks about what she wears and says when she's around those girls on the Upper East Side and Jennifer – she was dating Alex, the skateboarder, because it makes her edgy. She's not going to date the football player, she's going to date the hot skateboarder because it makes her cool.

ELLEgirl: How are both of them different from you?

Taylor Momsen: I don't really think I'm very superficial, so I'm not so much like Jennifer in Paranoid Park, but I can relate to Jenny – she's very creative and she's smart and she knows what she's doing. I think the cool thing is she has two sides to her, she has her Upper East Side role that she can fit into and her downtown life too. I have my uptown older group of friends and some of my downtown younger group of friends