Back in November we begged The CW to give Katie Cassidy’s “Melrose Place” character a coast-to-coast relocation since Ella Simms (and by extension, Katie) deserved so much better than that subpar soap. Thankfully that’s kinda what they did in the wake of “MP’s” cancelation.
While Ella Simms couldn’t make the jump, Katie did and was able to breathe life into another devilishly delicious character: Juliet Sharp, a mysterious woman who has wasted no time enmeshing herself in the lives of those “Gossip” guys and girls. It was revealed last week that her “meet cute” with Nate was no accident and tonight another puzzle piece falls into place, shedding light on Juliet’s true intentions.
But even Katie didn’t know where Juliet was going when she joined the cast as I found out during our chat the other day — turns out that the lure of working with “Gossip Girl” creators Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and her “Monte Carlo” co-star Leighton Meester was all she needed to hope a LAX -> JFK flight!
PopWrap: The CW wasn’t smart enough to keep your “Melrose Place” character alive, but I’m excited they didn’t let you go. Is that kind of how this came about?
Katie Cassidy: It was a mix of things – I have known Stephanie and Josh for a while and before I headed to shoot “Monte Carlo” with Leighton there had been discussion about me coming on to do a big arc. I talked with them and I liked what they had to say. Without even telling me too much about her, I was into it.
PW: In that situation how much did you know about Juliet coming in?
Katie: Not a lot [laughs]. They told me her background, but weren’t exactly forthcoming. I knew she might be a little bit malicious and for a while even I was questioning whether or not she was good or bad. But there was only one way to play her so I just had to go with how I saw her.
PW: Given that, did you get to the end of the first script and think, “am I Gossip Girl?!?”
Katie: [laughs] I didn’t actually read that into it until I actually saw it on TV and how they set it up. I can see why people would think that.
PW: So you’re not Gossip Girl?
Katie: Without giving too much away, probably not [laughs].
PW: But she does have an ulterior motive — will that come to light?
Katie: Yea, I think after my time here, all the questions will be answered. All the strings will be tied together and it’ll give you more of an understanding of where Juliet comes and the reasons for her stalker-ish, weird behavior [laughs].
PW: It’s almost like you’re playing two people — the one viewers see and the one the characters see.
Katie: Yea, it’s a little bit different from anything I’ve ever done before – she’s very internal and there’s definitely a different side to her when she’s speaking with them versus being alone. I mean, as you saw in the first episode, Juliet is putting her tags back on her clothes, so she’s putting on a facade around Nate, Serena and Blair. At the same time, that’s not to say her feelings for Nate aren’t true, or won’t become true. She’s caught in the middle.
PW: So far she’s been mostly nice, are there any fights coming for her?
Katie: There are definitely some face-offs.
PW: What’s it like going from playing Leighton’s bestie in “Monte Carlo” to her foe on “Gossip Girl?”
Katie: It’s fun to spar with someone when it’s fake regardless. It’s fun to lash out. It was so bizarre with Leighton because our characters in “Monte Carlo” are so different on “GG.” My “Monte Carlo” character Emma is this little naive sweet Texas girl who just wants everything and is full of life. Juliet is so drastically different. And the relationship between Juliet and Blair is so drastically different than the one between Emma and Meg. So I think it was fun to establish those differences. I remember us looking at each other thinking, this is so weird – who are you right now?!” [laughs]
