Gossip Girl’s Jessica Szohr Reveals Show Secrets, Behind-the-Scenes Revelations and More on ‘XOXO’ Podcast

Credit: Richard Young/Shutterstock

Gossip Girl’s Jessica Szohr Reveals Show Secrets, Behind-the-Scenes Revelations and More on 'XOXO' Podcast

You know you love them! Ten years after Gossip Girl concluded, series star Jessica Szohr is ready to spill all the show tea with her former costars and creators.

“I was having a [4th of July] party at my house, Steph [Savage] was over. I think you came with Adam Brody [and] we were in the casting process of Vanessa,” show cocreator Josh Schwartz revealed during the Wednesday, January 26, premiere episode of her “XOXO” podcast about the 36-year-old actress’ casting as Vanessa Abrams. “I opened the front door, you were standing there, [I was like,], ‘Vanessa!’ And found Stephanie. I don’t think we presented it to you at the party [and] let you enjoy yourself. … It was early Internet days!”

Schwartz and Savage — who previously worked together on The O.C. — adapted Cecily von Ziegesar’s popular book series of the same name, which premiered on The CW in 2007.

On the series, fans followed a group of wealthy high school students in New York City's Upper East Side neighborhood. Set at Constance Billard School for Girls and St. Jude’s School for Boys, fans soon fell in love with Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), Serena Van Der Woodson (Blake Lively), Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) and Vanessa Abrams (Szohr).

The CW iteration wasn’t the first time that producers had attempted to bring the NYC Upper East Siders to life. Schwartz revealed during his podcast appearance that Gilmore Girls’ Amy Sherman-Palladino was set to pen a film script of Gossip Girl with Lindsay Lohan on board to star as Blair. However, that version was soon scrapped before the Marvel’s Runaways cocreators were brought on board.

[jwplayer zO0zB9Gj-zhNYySv2]

“In the books, and in prior adaptations, I’m assuming, the mystery of why Serena left and why she came back was kind of, like, a little bit, like, she’s a party girl and she got in trouble and she left,” Schwartz noted about its literary predecessor. “There wasn’t a super concrete reason to her return or one that was generating a lot of sympathy for her character. … The idea that she came back for her family was one that we made early on to really root the audience’s interest.”

The Nancy Drew creators further recalled the Internet’s intensities about bringing these beloved book characters to life, especially in terms of the cast's physical appearance. For Meester’s naturally blonde locks, fans were insistent that her character should have darker hair.

“They just could not see it,” Savage recalled. “During pilot season, Leighton got her hair dyed brown to come in and read for the role. [She] gave exactly the same performance and [fans] were like, ‘We get it now.’”

The Single Parents alum wasn’t the only CW star to make considerable hair changes to better fit the role. Badgley, for his part, shaved off his curly mop hours before filming the pilot.

“He showed up on set with his big hair,” Savage recalled of Badgley’s first day on set. “And that morning, on camera, the first scene we shot was him and Rufus putting up flyers for the Lincoln Hawk concert. And we just brought him into the trailer and they just buzzed all of his hair off. It was like a Brad Pitt head buzz cut of the day.”

Years after the show concluded, the cocreators returned to the GG universe with its 2021 HBO Max revival featuring a diverse, Gen Z crop of Constance/St. Jude’s students.

Scroll down to discover the biggest “XOXO” podcast revelations about Gossip Girl and its cast:

Credit: Richard Young/Shutterstock

Gossip Girl’s Jessica Szohr Reveals Show Secrets, Behind-the-Scenes Revelations and More on 'XOXO' Podcast

You know you love them! Ten years after Gossip Girl concluded, series star Jessica Szohr is ready to spill all the show tea with her former costars and creators.

“I was having a [4th of July] party at my house, Steph [Savage] was over. I think you came with Adam Brody [and] we were in the casting process of Vanessa,” show cocreator Josh Schwartz revealed during the Wednesday, January 26, premiere episode of her “XOXO” podcast about the 36-year-old actress’ casting as Vanessa Abrams. “I opened the front door, you were standing there, [I was like,], ‘Vanessa!’ And found Stephanie. I don’t think we presented it to you at the party [and] let you enjoy yourself. … It was early Internet days!”

Schwartz and Savage — who previously worked together on The O.C. — adapted Cecily von Ziegesar’s popular book series of the same name, which premiered on The CW in 2007.

On the series, fans followed a group of wealthy high school students in New York City's Upper East Side neighborhood. Set at Constance Billard School for Girls and St. Jude’s School for Boys, fans soon fell in love with Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), Serena Van Der Woodson (Blake Lively), Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) and Vanessa Abrams (Szohr).

The CW iteration wasn’t the first time that producers had attempted to bring the NYC Upper East Siders to life. Schwartz revealed during his podcast appearance that Gilmore Girls’ Amy Sherman-Palladino was set to pen a film script of Gossip Girl with Lindsay Lohan on board to star as Blair. However, that version was soon scrapped before the Marvel’s Runaways cocreators were brought on board.

[jwplayer zO0zB9Gj-zhNYySv2]

“In the books, and in prior adaptations, I’m assuming, the mystery of why Serena left and why she came back was kind of, like, a little bit, like, she’s a party girl and she got in trouble and she left,” Schwartz noted about its literary predecessor. “There wasn’t a super concrete reason to her return or one that was generating a lot of sympathy for her character. … The idea that she came back for her family was one that we made early on to really root the audience’s interest.”

The Nancy Drew creators further recalled the Internet’s intensities about bringing these beloved book characters to life, especially in terms of the cast's physical appearance. For Meester’s naturally blonde locks, fans were insistent that her character should have darker hair.

“They just could not see it,” Savage recalled. “During pilot season, Leighton got her hair dyed brown to come in and read for the role. [She] gave exactly the same performance and [fans] were like, ‘We get it now.’”

The Single Parents alum wasn’t the only CW star to make considerable hair changes to better fit the role. Badgley, for his part, shaved off his curly mop hours before filming the pilot.

“He showed up on set with his big hair,” Savage recalled of Badgley’s first day on set. “And that morning, on camera, the first scene we shot was him and Rufus putting up flyers for the Lincoln Hawk concert. And we just brought him into the trailer and they just buzzed all of his hair off. It was like a Brad Pitt head buzz cut of the day.”

Years after the show concluded, the cocreators returned to the GG universe with its 2021 HBO Max revival featuring a diverse, Gen Z crop of Constance/St. Jude’s students.

Scroll down to discover the biggest “XOXO” podcast revelations about Gossip Girl and its cast:

Credit: Richard Young/Shutterstock

Chuck Wasn't Supposed to Be a Lead

The Gossip Girl team knew they had found something special from the moment they first saw Westwick as Chuck Bass. "I auditioned for Chace’s part [Nate] as well," the Chalet Girl star revealed during a February appearance on the podcast. "It was obvious that they liked me more for the Chuck role. It was a much more interesting role. I was having more fun with it. That was the one that resonated."

In fact, Schwartz and Savage loved Westwick's performance so much they decided to make him one of the leads. "Chuck Bass was supposed to be a recurring role," the White Gold alum added. "He was only supposed to come in for a few episodes. So, lucky me."

Credit: K C Bailey/Cw Network/Kobal/Shutterstock

A More Sympathetic Serena

“The characters really needed to be imbued with warmth and a rootability that the book characters didn’t necessarily have,” Savage explained during the January 26 episode. “And so, Blake’s natural warmth and kind of her California sunniness was actually going to be a great quality to add to Serena. That she loves her brother [Eric], that she cares about her friends, that she’s trying to be a better person and Blake was going to bring all of that in spades.”

Credit: Henry Lamb/BEI/Shutterstock

A Missing Chuck?

“[Ed] was just so cool and so unique. I had never seen a kid like him on a show like this,” Schwartz recalled during the same January podcast episode. “He got cast as Chuck but then couldn’t get his visa to shoot in the U.S. in time because he was a citizen of the U.K., and they were saying to us, as we got closer and close to the start of the pilot, ‘Guys, you need to figure out who your backup Chuck is going to be.’ … There [was] no backup Chuck, it’s Ed.”

Credit: CW Network/Kobal/Shutterstock

Chop Chop

“He had this hair that was sort of long,” Schwartz recalled of the Badgley’s pre-show haircut since he previously played a snowboarder for a WB series. “It was a nightmare for the network … It made him look more like a young man.”

Credit: Cw Network/Kobal/Shutterstock

Chair Were Endgame

“Ed and Leighton were super fun to write for,” Savage noted. “It was really a revelation to watch the end of the first episode and feel like, ‘Oh my God, it’s like Dangerous Liaisons, like, they love each other but they hate each other but they’re going to do schemes together. Such a juicy story to want to lean into.”

Schwartz added: “It was the end of the pilot and those two were standing outside the party watching Dan and Serena and Jenny leave the party, and there was just a connection between them. Obviously, that would evolve over the course of the series. That was immediately just so palpable and fun, their dynamic.”

Credit: Alex Berliner/BEI/Shutterstock

XOXO, GG

While no one else recorded voiceovers during the audition process, Christina Ricci and Selma Blair were initially “in the mix” to portray the voice of Gossip Girl, since Kristen Bell was still working on Veronica Mars at the time. However, Schwartz and Savage gushed about Bell’s intonation of the anonymous blogger, noting that she made the narration special in both Gossip Girl series.

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

'Make Crack for Girls'

Gossip Girl, as the first series for the new CW network, had lofty ambitions for a teen drama at the time to hit the underserved demographic of women between the ages of 18 to 35. Savage even remembered one poignant note from executives: “It’s probably bad to now to say, ‘make crack for girls,’ but the idea was making something that was only for this audience.”