“I think the perception is: You’re an ingenue, or you’re an icon, or you’re a mom. There’s no in between,” she adds. What she doesn’t say but fast becomes obvious: Meester clearly isn’t interested in being bucketed into any category at this point in her career, particularly after six seasons of playing a teen queen on Gossip Girl. Her new role might not be the meatiest female character ever written, but the actress still manages to do a lot with it, all the while taking mental note of how the landscape is shifting when it comes to how women are portrayed on the big and small screens.