WASHINGTON: ‘Gossip Girl’ made Blake Lively the household name.
The actress went on starring in the show as Serena van der Woodsen, but she had decided to quit acting before being offered the role in 2007.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the 30-year-old actress realized in her teens that acting and the Hollywood scene were not for her.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, she said, “I realized that [acting] was a business as much as a craft. People will go see your movie based on your standing and all of that, and it didn’t make sense to me because I was 18 and being an artist.”
The O.C. creators and showrunners, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage came across Lively’s name and took the part to her for the series.
When initially offered the role, however, Lively was not totally on board.
“I said, ‘No, I want to go to college. Thank you, though. Then they said, ‘Okay, you can go to Columbia [University] one day a week. After the first year [of the show], it’ll quiet down. Your life will go back to normal and you can start going to school. We can’t put it in writing, but we promise you can go.’ So that’s why I said, ‘Okay. You know what? I’ll do this,’” explained Lively.
When asked if she would be game for a reboot, she said, “I’m open to anything that’s good, that’s interesting, and that sort of feels necessary… I imagine we all would [consider it]. I can’t speak for everyone else, but we all owe so much to this show, and I think that it would be silly not to acknowledge that.”