The two “it” girl’s of the CW’s Gossip Girl, Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, are featured in the new issue of Nylon magazine.

Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

Leighton on playing her character on Gossip Girl: “Maybe I’ve known [Blair] somehow or I know her in myself and she needs somebody to portray her in a way that isn’t completely harsh because she could be so hated.”

Blake on how she almost turned down the show: “[I thought] if there are pet monkeys wearing coordinating outfits, that’s not something I’m going to want to be a part of…. ”

Leighton on Gossip Girl style: “Serena is more thrown together and effortless and doesn’t really care, and is just like, has this sexiness to her without trying, and Blair is really uptight and conservative and put together and everything has to be perfect, you know Chuck is kind of cocky and he’s just like, I don’t know, a prick.”

Blake on the weirdness of Internet Message boards: “Yeah, it’s kind of crazy but after the first Sisterhood trailer even came out, um, I guess it’s maybe I’m the only person with long blonde hair in Hollywood. I don’t know, but everyone was like, “Oh, she should be Serena.”

Catch the new season of Gossip Girl on Monday, April 21.