Except for one thing: Nina Dobrev, actress of The Vampire Diaries, was perfect for the character of a young Lily Rhodes in the intended Gossip Girl spinoff Valley Girls.
Dobrev “gave the best read” for the job, according to casting director David Rapaport, who talked on Jessica Szhor’s XOXO podcast, and “was one of the best auditions I had ever seen, and for that role especially.”
Even though “she is a huge star, she does not look like Kelly Rutherford,” Rapaport informed Szhor, who is a friend of Dobrev, it was not to be for Dobrev.
In the original series, Kelly Rutherford played Lily Rhodes, and because the role was for a young Lily Rhodes, Dobrev did not fit the look.
“I don’t know how we would cast her,” Rapaport told the network, “but she needs to be on your radar, and you guys need to find something for her.”
According to Rapaport, Dobrev’s audition beat out Dakota Johnson, Rooney Mara, and “a number of other ladies who went on to become great celebrities.”
Dobrev went on to play Elena Gilbert and her doppelgänger Katherine Pierce in The Vampire Diaries, a long-running successful fantasy series.
However, while the spin-off was never made, a young Lily Rhodes appeared in a one-off episode of Gossip Girl series two, also titled Valley Girls. We saw flashbacks of Lily in her childhood when she was played by Brittany Snow, fleeing to Los Angeles to live with her sister Carol (Krysten Ritter).
