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Taylor Momsen was the latest guest on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and reminisced on the painstaking effort it took to quit The CW’s “Gossip Girl” during Season 4. Momsen, a child actor who had already appeared in major films such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Spy Kids 2” before signing on to “Gossip Girl,” originated the role of Jenny Humphrey on the series. Jenny was one of the more divisive characters. Momsen wanted to quit the show in Season 4 to pursue her dreams of touring with her band, The Pretty Reckless.
“I kind of just Irish-dipped. I just wasn’t on the script the next week,” Momsen said (via E! News). “They all knew I was making music. They all knew I had a band. I would play them stuff because I was working on the first record while I was on the show. I would come in and play songs… but I don’t think anyone knew how serious I was at that stage.”
“It was an easy decision for me,” she continued. “To actually get [out of] a contract was not easy… it was a very long battle of me arguing [with] everyone and going, ‘Get me outta this. I can’t do this anymore. This is killing me. I have something else I want to do with my life, and it has nothing to do with this, and I can’t be stuck here anymore.’”
Despite her pleas, Momsen said studio executives at Warner Bros. Television deemed her “ungrateful” for trying to get off a popular television series, adding: “You’re called all the things that come along with, ‘How dare you turn your back on something that’s been so successful for you.’”
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“I just went, ‘Fuck you. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re not in my shoes, so how dare you judge this?’” Momsen said. “I was very defensive, but it came down to they wouldn’t let me out of the contract. The head of Warner Bros. said, ‘Fuck Taylor Momsen. No fucking way.’”
Fortunately for Momsen, she had “Gossip Girl” showrunners Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz on her side. They agreed to write Jenny out of the show in Season 4, even though Momsen was still contracted for more time. This meant that Momsen could not act in other projects until her “Gossip Girl” contract was up, even if she was no longer being written into scripts. Luckily, Momsen had no intention of acting anyway as she pivoted full-time to her music career.
“I really have to credit them for doing that for me because they did not have to, and they wrote me out of the show so I could go on tour and be in a band,” Momsen said, noting that she has no resentment towards “Gossip Girl” all these years later. She even reprised Jenny in the show’s 2012 series finale.
“As a fan of television and a fan of the shows, I love when you have the full cast together again,” Momsen said. “You want to full-circle that and round it out.”
Watch Momsen’s full interview on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in the video below.
