Taylor Momsen is recalling her intense battle with studio executives over wanting to quit Gossip Girl to pursue her music career.
The singer-actress was the latest guest on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, and opened up about her decision to leave the hit series in season four after originating the role of Jenny Humphrey, Dan Humphrey’s (Penn Badgley) younger sister.
“It was an easy decision for me,” Momsen explained. “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.’”
She recalled executives at Warner Bros. Television calling her “ungrateful” for trying to leave the 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.’”
When they wouldn’t let Momsen out of her contract, that’s when she went to Gossip Girl showrunners Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz to figure out another option.
“They essentially went, ‘Well, we can’t let you out of the contract because that’s not our job, but we can write you out of the show. We understand what you’re trying to do here,’” she recounted. “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.”
While Momsen was already working to make a name for herself in Hollywood even before Gossip Girl, with roles in How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams, her true passion lies with music. Once she departed the show during season four in 2010, the singer went on to tour with her band, The Pretty Reckless.
“I kind of just Irish-dipped. I just wasn’t on the script the next week,” she admitted about how her co-stars learned of her departure from the show. “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.”
As Momsen pursued music full-time, she also didn’t want to leave the Gossip Girl fans hanging, so she later reprised her role of Jenny for the series finale in 2012.
“As a fan of television and a fan of the shows, I love when you have the full cast together again,” she said. “You want to full-circle that and round it out.”
