You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl.
When we read those words, we all hear one voice in our heads: Kristen Bell. As the voice of Gossip Girl herself, Kristen has become synonymous with the iconic show we all know and love. And with good reason, because her delivery was always absolutely impeccable.
But as it turns out, the one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite actually almost never happened — Kristen was almost removed from the show altogether! The reason? The test audience apparently did not love her (scandalous!).
This bombshell was revealed in the premiere episode of Jessica Zhor’s Gossip Girl podcast, XOXO. Jessica, who played Vanessa Abrams in the series, had the show’s creators Jason Schwartz and Stephanie Savage as guests. The two spilled the beans on how the signature VO almost did not come to be.
They shared that the test audience was instructed to turn up the dial when their interest was piqued and turn it down when they were losing interest. And it just so happened that every time Kristen’s voice came on, a lot of dials were turned down! Jason said:
“Interestingly, every time the Gossip Girl voiceover would kick in, it would drop.
People were into it, and then like, ‘Who’s this voice that’s coming in and distracting me?’ Do you lose the voice-over?”
The answer to that question was simple:
“We can’t. That’s part of the show and we just have to ride with it.”
They revealed that Selma Blair and Christina Ricci were also in the mix as potential Gossip Girl VOs, but that there was no denying the part belonged to Kristen. Kristen was the iconic voice of Gossip Girl for all six seasons of the show’s run, and has reprised her role in the reboot, which launched in 2021.
Stephanie said of Kristen’s impeccable voice acting:
‘When she recorded it, she created an entirely different character with just her voice.”
We totally agree. XOXO!
