The ‘Gossip Woman’ Reboot’s Queen Bee Is Savannah Lee Smith, Instantaneous Icon

If there’s one present that actors and audiences alike spend their time dreaming about being solid in, it’s Gossip Girl. Who wouldn’t wish to flex their malicious muscle tissue to play a bratty teen with a lot money and time on their palms 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 means by 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 wood 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 traditional CW sequence’ distinctive formulation 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 best way we so know and love?

For those who 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 demanding 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 gradual burn, it ended on a promise to amp issues up in Season 2. And with the second episode airing this week, it’s secure to say that issues have turned a nook on the Higher East Aspect. 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 one in every of Julien’s henchwomen, the character—and Smith herself—grew to become 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 admittedly validating and reassuring. We felt it on set—we had been like, “I feel that is even higher,” and we hoped individuals would have a great response. However it 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 facet?

It’s been superior. [Laughs]. It’s been actually, actually enjoyable to be actually imply. Within the first season, her drive to make Julien one of the best 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 rather a lot in her chase to glory and energy, but additionally you see much more colours from her. She cries! That was a giant factor.

Are you a great 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 unique facet 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 enamel 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 slightly intimidated!

Has it been daunting to your first main display screen position to be a giant present like Gossip Woman?

The will to show myself and present folks that I actually do consider I’ve expertise overrides the anxiousness 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 achieved with 50 extras. And I began in theater, so having an viewers doesn’t trouble me, nevertheless it’s only a totally different setting as a result of everybody’s taking a look at you—

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

I’ve needed to recover from that awkwardness, however aside 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 attractive library at 3 a.m. It felt like an enormous sleepover. We had an all-women stunt group are available 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 honest, it seemed 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. However it 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 bought it!

Barbara Nitke/HBO Max

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

She’s the imply lady 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 feel Monet brings parts of that. Now that we’re in Season 2, I feel individuals will develop to know and like her extra due to how dynamic she is. We will all relate to placing up an exterior or a wall since you don’t wish to be susceptible. That’s all she is, however she executes it very awfully…clearly she’s doing this to cover one thing.

The primary season bought some blowback from longtime Gossip Woman followers for not feeling like the unique sequence. This season, there’s a transparent push to carry again a few of the parts that followers liked in regards to the unique 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 individuals had been lacking some points of the catfights and issues shifting slightly bit faster. [This season] there’s rather a lot much less dialogue. There’s much more enjoyable stuff taking place on display screen. … However I really feel like this season unfolds actually properly, and that it does have numerous points of the OG.

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

Ooh. See, you recognize that I’m a Sort A. I really like planning, I really 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 know the way I’d play that and the way she would navigate that, and that might be a very enjoyable factor to discover. I’d like to see stuff that’s extra in-depth together with her mother and father, particularly her dad. We get Camille slightly bit now, however I feel with Grayson, there’s some stuff there! I feel 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. Perhaps 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.