I got the job, and then I thought: ‘Everyone’s going to hate me’...
Gossip Girl is back with a whole new cast. Scottish actor Thomas Doherty tells Georgia Humphreys how it’s been updated for 2021
THOMAS DOHERTY had an awkward conversation recently with a viewer of his new show, Gossip Girl.
The reboot of the US teen drama – which originally ran from 2007 to 2012 – is already airing across the pond and will soon be available to watch here on BBC and iPlayer.
“I was out, and someone asked, ‘Oh my god, are you in the new Gossip Girl? I didn’t like it, I prefer the old one’,” recalls the Scottish star, who’s also starred in the Descendants film franchise. “Obviously, you’re going to get people that don’t like it.”
Discussing the pressure he felt taking on the role of Max, the 26-year-old actor says: “I got the job, and then I was like, ‘Everyone’s going to hate me’ because there’s nothing quite as strong as nostalgia, so I was worried that everyone would view the new one through the veil of nostalgia.”
Following a group of New York private school teenagers whose scandals, struggles and secrets were documented by a ruthless blogger called, you’ve guessed it, Gossip Girl, the original programme was a huge success.
It kick-started the careers of the likes of Blake Lively, Leighton Meester and Penn Badgley and pushed boundaries
(at the time, anyway) with its twisty, soapy, and sometimes downright ridiculous storylines.
If you want to remind yourself of the drama, or have never seen it, every episode is now on BBC iPlayer and then next
week, the new show launches.
Showrunner Joshua Safran has based Gossip Girl 2021 on the original show, which he also worked on, and the bestselling novel series of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar.
Set nine years on from when Gossip Girl’s website went dark, we meet a whole new generation of privileged pupils at Constance Billard and St Jude’s who are living under surveillance.
But what’s changed with the show being re-imagined in a 2021 context is how diverse and progressive it is.
For instance, Thomas’s character Max – who many are comparing to Chuck Bass from the original, played by British actor Ed Westwick – is pansexual.
Thomas describes playing him as “liberating”.
He says: “It definitely did blow open my eyes and my preconceived notions of what sexuality was, and what sexual identity was, and what sexual preference was. I feel like it does get spoon-fed to you, when you are younger – what you are, what you should be, what you are going to be, what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s a spectrum, sexual preference – and for Max it is a big spectrum, and that was fun to play and explore.”
Looking back, the first Gossip Girl feels dated in how heteronormative it is. Does Thomas think it could have been revived without more inclusiveness?
“I don’t think it would be an honest depiction of the world we live in now, and so it’d be hard for people to relate and see themselves in the characters and fall in love with the characters.
“I don’t think it would be fair to bring it back, without it being honest and representative. It’s not a pat on the shoulder to Gossip Girl, or to any shows that are doing this; it needed to happen.”
As for the comparisons to bad boy Chuck, Thomas says: “Max is a lot more evolved, a lot more exposed to a greater diversity of life.
“He’s got two dads; he’s got social media now. There are so many different aspects in his life that are very different, and that’s what moulds someone, and so I guess it’s just trying to be true to that.”
Stream every episode of the original Gossip Girl on BBC iPlayer now. The new series will arrive as a box set on iPlayer from August 25, with the first episode on BBC One that same day