The ‘Gossip Woman’ Reboot’s Queen Bee Is Savannah Lee Smith, On the spot Icon

If there’s one present that actors and audiences alike spend their time dreaming about being forged in, it’s Gossip Girl. Who wouldn’t wish to flex their malicious muscle tissues to play a bratty teen with a lot money and time on their arms that they merely simply don’t know what to do with it?

For these of us who grew up watching Leighton Meester and Blake Lively tear their method by means of the highschool caste system prefer it was a Bergdorf’s pattern sale, HBO Max’s reboot of Gossip Woman was virtually a godsend. When it debuted in 2021, the state of bitchy teen TV was faltering, propped up on the splintering picket stilts of Riverdale and Euphoria. Whereas they had been worthy successors in their very own proper, neither present has ever been fairly in a position to match the basic CW sequence’ distinctive system of melodrama and salacious scandal.

Now, enter a new crew of Gossip Girl teens, handpicked to proceed the legacy of the unique present that was nonetheless teeming with cultural ubiquity. Positive, these new youngsters are all fairly, however can they throw down in a verbal sparring match in the way in which we so know and love?

If you happen to watched the reboot’s first season, you’ll have a troublesome time answering that query. With creator and showrunner Josh Safran’s reluctance to depend on the catfights and slut-shaming that the unique sequence trademarked itself with, the brand new Gossip Woman struggled with finding its footing amongst followers and critics. “As everyone knows, youngsters by no means do or say something out of line when positioned in irritating social conditions with heightened feelings and hormones,” one Twitter user sarcastically identified in response to Safran’s deliberate modifications—a standard chorus amongst viewers on-line.

Although Gossip Woman’s first season was a sluggish burn, it ended on a promise to amp issues up in Season 2. And with the second episode airing this week, it’s protected to say that issues have turned a nook on the Higher East Facet. The catfights have returned—god bless!—and the present’s tempo is quicker, punchier, and fewer self-conscious. It’s additionally giving its characters much more to do, together with some correct scheming between Contance Billard’s Queen Bee contenders, Monet de Haan (Savannah Lee Smith) and Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander).

Barbara Nitke/HBO Max

Whereas the primary season relegated Monet to certainly one of Julien’s henchwomen, the character—and Smith herself—turned the fan-favorite underdogs. With a juicier position in Season 2, we couldn’t assist however take discover of Monet’s ascent among the many present’s energy gamers. The teenager queen crown is on the road, in spite of everything. The Day by day Beast’s Obsessed sat down with Smith to speak about Monet’s second-season arc, the return of the catfights, throwing herself right into a fountain in classic Dolce, and what she’d like to see for her character in Season 3.

We’re practically midway into Season 2. How does it really feel to be again within the saddle, so to talk?

It feels good! The help that we’ve been getting for this second season is de facto validating and reassuring. We felt it on set—we had been like, “I believe that is even higher,” and we hoped folks would have an excellent response. But it surely has undoubtedly exceeded my expectations, when it comes to my character particularly.

Monet’s queen aspirations are actually dialed up this season. She will get to be much more catty and scheming. How has it been, dipping into Monet’s extra depraved aspect?

It’s been superior. [Laughs]. It’s been actually, actually enjoyable to be actually imply. Within the first season, her drive to make Julien the most effective was actually there, [but] she nonetheless had that cunningness about her. Now, in Season 2, it was much more enjoyable for me as a result of she’s doing it for herself. Monet opens up quite a bit in her chase to glory and energy, but in addition you see much more colours from her. She cries! That was an enormous factor.

Are you an excellent crier on cue, or did that take some work?

I can cry on cue fairly simply! And in that scene particularly, I used to be actually excited to lastly present a distinct aspect of Monet and present that I’m a dramatic actor and contemplate myself extra dramatic than [the character of] Gossip Woman! It was enjoyable to get to point out my chops and sink my tooth into it, and on high of that it was an evening shoot—three within the morning, we had been there all day. After which Amanda Warren, who performs [Monet’s mother] Camille, she made it straightforward for me to cry—I used to be a bit of intimidated!

Has it been daunting in your first main display position to be an enormous present like Gossip Woman?

The will to show myself and present people who I actually do consider I’ve expertise overrides the nervousness about it. However I do bear in mind the primary time I used to be actually nervous, and it was the primary scene I had ever completed with 50 extras. And I began in theater, so having an viewers doesn’t hassle me, but it surely’s only a totally different setting as a result of everybody’s you—

—And everybody needs to be fake-talking when you’re doing the true speaking.

I’ve needed to recover from that awkwardness, however apart from that it’s been superb.

You’ve gotten to be way more bodily this season. You get to push Jordan Alexander round and throw your self right into a fountain. What are these days like on set for you?

For the catfight on the Deb Ball, it was actually enjoyable, as a result of it was all of us on this beautiful library at 3 a.m. It felt like a large sleepover. We had an all-women stunt group are available in from Brooklyn, and it was my first time working with a stunt coordinator. It felt like choreography and we’re in these robes. It felt like a play, actually theatrical, which was actually enjoyable for me. However I was actually terrified to fall into the fountain.

To be truthful, it appeared actually shallow.

Oh, it was. I used to be being a baby-and-a-half. It was extraordinarily shallow, I did have a stunt coordinator, and there was a mat beneath the water for me to fall onto. But it surely was that I needed to fall backwards! I used to be like, “What if I miss it after which I bang my head on one thing?” And I actually solely had one take. [Our costume designer] Eric Daman was like, “This can be a one-take second. This can be a classic Dolce gown.” However I acquired it!

Barbara Nitke/HBO Max

One thing followers love about Monet is that you would be able to see how her quest for energy is tangled in her want to be cherished. What do you assume it’s about Monet that resonates with the present’s viewers a lot?

She’s the imply woman that everybody likes to hate and hates to like. That trope is an integral a part of Gossip Woman. That’s why Blair was so iconic, and I believe Monet brings parts of that. Now that we’re in Season 2, I believe folks will develop to grasp and like her extra due to how dynamic she is. We are able to all relate to placing up an exterior or a wall since you don’t wish to be weak. That’s all she is, however she executes it very awfully…clearly she’s doing this to cover one thing.

The primary season acquired some blowback from longtime Gossip Woman followers for not feeling like the unique sequence. This season, there’s a transparent push to convey again among the parts that followers cherished in regards to the authentic sequence, whereas staying true to this one’s personal type and really feel. What do you say to the people who find themselves nonetheless cautious of the reboot?

I’d say that we listened—or Josh and the writers [listened]. Even within the first 4 episodes, you possibly can undoubtedly see that the writers paid consideration to the truth that folks had been lacking some facets of the catfights and issues shifting a bit of bit faster. [This season] there’s quite a bit much less dialogue. There’s much more enjoyable stuff occurring on display. … However I really feel like this season unfolds actually properly, and that it does have plenty of facets of the OG.

In a number of weeks, Season 2 will already be over and we’ll be heading into Season 3. So in that spirit, in case you may decide three belongings you wish to see for Monet in Season 3, what would they be?

Ooh. See, you already know that I’m a Sort A. I like planning, I like pondering forward.

We’re manifesting.

I do know that lots of people on Twitter wish to see Monet fall in love, and I wish to see that too. For me, the actor that performs Monet, I don’t even understand how I’d play that and the way she would navigate that, and that may be a very enjoyable factor to discover. I’d like to see stuff that’s extra in-depth along with her dad and mom, particularly her dad. We get Camille a bit of bit now, however I believe with Grayson, there’s some stuff there! I believe the De Haans are a very iconic household.

The opposite factor: Grace Duah [who plays Shan] and I had been speaking about this on set, this concept that we’re going to speak to Josh about. Possibly Monet and Shan knew one another a very long time in the past, and nobody talks about it. I’d like to see Monet and Shan have some moments collectively in Season 3. Grace is superb. Let’s manifest it.