To those who are a fan of Gossip Girl, we have a special surprise for all of you. Not only did we manage to have an exclusive interview with a cast member of Gossip Girl, but we have three more members of the cast with us! We have Whitney Peak who starred as Zoya Lott, Grace Duah as Shan Barnes, and finally, Eli Brown as Otto ‘Obie’ Bergmann IV. We are very excited to speak with these three members about the newest episodes, what Season 2 is like, what’s new for the characters in this season, and more. But before we can even start with this interview, here’s some context on the series that first started it all, and its connection to the original show.
Gossip Girl is an American teen drama series that’s based on the novel written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The story itself is pretty simple; the show revolves around the lives of the most attractive, affluent, and privileged teens who live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Each of these teens becomes directly involved with one another in different ways, in which their actions are all monitored under the all-seeing eyes of the mysterious, vicious, and infamous, Gossip Girl. The original show in 2007 ran for six seasons on the CW Network, and the original co-creators of the show Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage return as Executive Producers to the current, Gossip Girl. The show did well, as there were many more adaptations of Gossip Girl outside of the U.S., and the show received many awards, such as the Teen Choice Awards. Pretty cool, huh?
Now, how does this lead into our current Gossip Girl? Well, the show itself is the sequel to the original, 2007 show from the CW Network. However, the storyline is a bit different. While the exposition of affluent teens, the watchful eyes of Gossip Girl, and the general setting remain the same, the show showcases the differences in how much social media and the land of New York City had changed in the coming years. What’s even more interesting about this sequel, is that Josh Schwartz himself confirmed that the cast members from the original Gossip Girl have an open invitation to return to the series.
This leads us to the three cast members of this interview. Let’s first start with Whitney Peak, who stars as Zoya Lott. Whitney is well known for her debut film called Molly’s Game as Stella, as well as her role as Judith in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – Part 3 and 4. For those who know her more of her more modern roles, she’s also known as Becca from Hocus Pocus 2 and as Alpha Jessica from Home Before Dark. Next, we have Eli Brown, an actor who’s well known for his role as Tristan Voy from Run Hide Fight, and as Dougie from Wrath of Man. Those who are fans of Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, will recognize him as Dylan Walker. And finally, we have Grace Duah, who’s known for her role as Grace in the short Want This, but is better renowned for her role as Shan in Gossip Girl.
We first ask the cast what fans can expect in Season 2, and if there’s anything about their characters that they’ll be excited to see. Whitney starts by saying that the first season is a great ‘warm-up’ for those who initially started on Gossip Girl, but then states that all bets are off once Season 2 rolls around. According to her, Season 2 is going to be more malicious, there are more bodies to be discovered, and there are going to be entanglements that many people are going to have opinions on. Grace continues off by saying that Season 2 serves as a return to what made Gossip Girl great, as the changes in social media exemplify the biggest changes in the characters and their personalities, and exploring that specific avenue of when the moment no one is watching, the characters show how malicious they can be. Eli tops it off by stating that fans will be seeing his character Obi stepping up on his own, compared to Season 1, which he feels very great about. He claims that the Season will be “much spicier” compared to the first season, which is a very, nice set of words to describe how different the first season is from its next season.
