Knowing a company in Thailand bought the series “Gossip Girl” from the United States, I bet all Thai fans cannot keep their guilty pleasure quiet. Love it or hate it, this series is like a bible for girls learning how a girl survives everywhere in the girl world.
If you didn’t know, Gossip Girl is about a group of high school students on the Upper East Side of New York City. There’s not much more than the usual love, friendship, and social cruelty common to the genre, but it’s realistic enough to connect with audiences.
When it comes to Thailand, the original’s depictions of young sexuality may exceed official social values but didn’t hurt its success, and fans want to see how that translates onto Thai television.
Before rushing to judge the series which debuts tonight, we talked to the actress portraying the main character of the story, the “Queen Bee” herself, Blair Waldorf. Thaified she’s now Beatriz “Blair” Waranont and is played by 17-year-old actress Carissa Springett, best known from first season of reality modeling show “The Face Thailand.” We wanted to find out if she can bring the heat of Gossip Girl Thailand into the red zone.
What about Blair do you like and don’t like the most?
From what I have learned from the script, I like her confidence and courage to restart at any point of her life. Whatever she faces at the time, whoever is to blame, she will be able to solve it and try again, no matter what. She welcomes every chance coming to her life, and I think it would be great to adapt to our lives. And for what I don’t like about her, it’s her behavior that always wants to be the first for everything. She wants to be over others all the time which is tiring, to be honest.
I love the character, really. This exact kind of personality exists all over the world. And society is just true comparing with the original. For example, New York society is kinda more open than ours. But in Thailand, it’s quite strict and quiet. Still, it’s gonna be my great opportunity to learn through someone else’s life and thoughts.
What do you do to ‘be’ Blair Waldorf?
It takes studying and practicing. In the film, there are lots of party scenes, so I have to learn ways to hold a wine glass, how to order food and types of whisky. The most important thing is to adjust my mind to her thinking. If I were her, what would I do? What would I think? What face would I have? I had a chance to take an acting course with Professor Rossukon “Ngoh” Kongkaet, she taught me to relax and just let Blair take my body. She said everyone could be any character. The thing is do not try to bring the character into us but we have to try to find that character in ourselves and emphasize it. Make it clearer.
If you were a friend of Blair Waldorf, how would you improve her bad behavior?
I would do what Serena does, which is to understand Blair’s nature. Everyone has a temper, it’s about if we would get them and accept them. Suppose we have that bad friend, we should not hate him/her or avoid him/her, it only makes things worse. Blair’s problem is she is out of love from her parents, so she’s got the concept that money helps.
What do you think will differentiate Gossip Girl Thailand from the New York version?
I feel that it’s already different. There ‘s no way they’re the same. What they have in common is the original material, the way Gossip Girl tells the story, characters and the script. These are all the same with the original from New York. We try to keep the fashionable clothing and teenage joy in the story, but what is different is the way the context is interpreted according to the society which it cannot be directly copied from the old one anyway.
Why do you think you were chosen to take the Blair Waldorf role in Gossip Girl Thailand?
Maybe it’s that Blair’s personality and mine are quite similar. I have that colorful character, I love dressing up, shopping, and I am a fun, lively, smiling person just like Blair. And it’s about the close age we are. Actually, I never asked the reason they picked me, but they said they believed I could do it.
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