Leighton Meester Follows This Advice for a Lasting Relationship & It’s Everything Her Character in Exmas Didn’t Do

As the holiday season quickly approaches, and we begin to worry about all the presents we have yet to put under our Christmas tree, there’s one holiday tradition that we don’t have to worry about: watching Christmas movies. After all, in addition to being able to rewatch all your favorites at anytime, new Christmas rom-coms, like Exmas, starring Leighton Meester and Robbie Amell, are now available for everyone to enjoy.

The movie, which was released today on Amazon’s free streaming channel Freevee, follows workaholic Graham (Amell) as he surprises his family for Christmas only to find out that his ex-fiancée Ali (Meester) was also invited for the holidays.

Talking to SheKnows, Meester, who is married to fellow actor Adam Brody since 2014, gave some relationship advice to her character (and anyone reading this). “I was ready for a relationship that was mutually respectful and able to grow because I could look within and look at myself and try to work on the things that I need to work on and not try to fix anybody else or be with somebody who I tried to make better,” she explains.

“I’ll be better and I will try to rise to my partner’s level,” she says, adding that’s all about being in a mindset of knowing she “deserved love and all those good things.”

For Ali, however, instead of looking “within” and working on herself, she continued to rely of Graham’s family and even started a not-so-friendly competition with him to see who could impress his family m. “Don’t bring their family into it,” Meester says about Ali’s plans. “Don’t be competitive about it. Usually the family chooses their firstborn over [you.]”

As for how it was working with Amell, Meester had only kind words for her handsome co-star. “He’s pretty easy to have chemistry with,” she says. “I mean, he’s very funny. He’s a really easy laugh. There was a lot of playing and he was game with that and brought a lot.”

“He’s down to earth and he’s got a good sense of humor,” she adds. “He’s got a lovely disposition and he’s Canadian and I don’t want to put all Canadians in a box. But boy, are they nice!” (In case you’re about to Google it, no, Brody is not Canadian).

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Without giving too much away, at one point in the movie, Graham, Ali and his family play a game of ice hockey – something Amell has a natural talent at. “It was shocking his skating ability,” she remembers. “I was really mad about that. They were like, ‘No, we don’t need a stunt double for him. He’s just gonna do it.’ It was unbelievable, and just infuriating.”

As for Meester herself, she won’t be planning to hit the ice anytime soon. “They asked me the beginning of the movie. They’re like, ‘Can you skate?’ And I could do the resume thing where you say you speak a bunch of different languages and you’re really good at all this stuff. And I was like, ‘I’m gonna be honest, no.’ And then they didn’t make me skate.” Looks like a win-win! “I knew that I would have been exposed.”

Meester’s new movie, Exmas, is now available for streaming on Freevee. Happy watching!

Before you go, click here to see the most romantic movie kisses you’ll wish would happen to you IRL.