These celebrities were running to play the young Lily van der Woodsen
Gossip Girl casting director David Rapaport cooked Jessica about the Gossip Girl spinoff, centered around Serena’s mom, Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford).
“I remember Dakota Johnson coming in. There are lots of other women who are kind of big names now but not that stature back then,” he recalled on Xoxo. “And do you know who read the most for that? I tell you, because I think you’re friends with Nina Dobrev.
David called the network and said, “She’s a superstar.”
But the problem he recalled on the podcast was that “she was supposed to be a young Kelly Rutherford, so she doesn’t look like Kelly Rutherford.”
Still, she emphasized to the network what they need to keep Degrasi: the next generation of stars on their radar “And you guys need to find something for her,” he recalled. “I remember thinking about this girl a few years later and thinking, ‘Oh, God, I missed that opportunity.’ She was so incredible! ”
