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These Celebs Were in the Running to Play Young Lily Van der Woodsen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Gossip Girl<\/em> casting director David Rapaport<\/strong> dished to Jessica about the Gossip Girl<\/em> spinoff centered on Serena’s mom, Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford<\/strong><\/a>), with a pilot that starred Brittany Snow<\/strong> <\/a>and Krysten Ritter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n “I remember for that Dakota Johnson<\/strong><\/a> came in and Rooney Mara<\/strong><\/a>, and a lot of other women who are now kind of big names but at the time didn’t have that kind of stature,” he recalled on\u00a0XOXO<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0“And you know who did the best read for that? I’ll tell you, because I think you’re friends with Nina Dobrev<\/strong><\/a>, that was one of the best auditions I had ever seen, and for that role specifically.”<\/p>\n David said he called the network and told them, “She is a super star.”<\/p>\n The issue, however, as he recalled on the podcast was that “she does not look like Kelly Rutherford, because she was supposed to be a young Kelly Rutherford.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, she stressed to the network that they needed to keep the Degrassi: The Next Generation<\/em><\/a> star on their radar, “‘and you guys need to find something for her,'” he recalled. “I just remember thinking, ‘I am going to think about this girl in a couple of years and be like, ‘Oh god, I missed that opportunity.’ She was so incredible!”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n