Teen dramas are known for having older actors play teens, but Kelsey Asbille‘s One Tree Hill arc marked the rare occasion where a teen was playing an older character.
The Yellowstone actress joined the Monday, March 4, episode of the “Drama Queens” podcast to talk about her first professional job on the WB/CW drama as Gigi Silveri, the role she played from 2005 to 2009.
“I was 13, and y’all were like these beautiful [women],” Asbille, now 32, recalled to cohosts Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bethany Joy Lenz. “I stuffed my bra for the audition. Oh my god, I had to! I remember, I thought I was auditioning for a cheerleader, so I borrowed my friend’s cheerleading outfit, and they were like, ‘No, no, no, this is the school nerd.’”
Burton Morgan, 41, said she was “horrified” as she has a 14-year-old son and Lenz, 42, whose daughter just turned 13, agreed.
‘One Tree Hill’ Cast: Where Are They Now?
Gigi was introduced as a lovestruck student crushing on Marvin “Mouth” McFadden (Lee Norris).
“I didn’t know at all what I was doing, I was just so happy to be there. I couldn’t believe my luck. I do remember getting the note to stop smiling,” Asbille said with a laugh.
The actress, who turned 14 shortly after getting the job, was grateful to be paired up with Norris, who grew up as a child actor on Boy Meets World. However, she wasn’t thrilled to have her first kiss on camera with James Lafferty in a scene where she recreated Nathan’s romance with Haley for a skit.
“This is terrible,” she said. “So my first kiss was on One Tree Hill, [it] was with James [Lafferty].”
She added, “I remember I was so incredibly nervous, like, kissing my hand, not eating a shrimp skewer that day … I remember asking Sophia [Bush], ‘Do you kiss during rehearsal?’”
“The worst part is that in that scene, I jump him and kiss him and I had braces,” she said. “So when I tell you that I jumped this poor man and punched his face with my face. You can hear the smack.”
She continued, “The worst kiss of my life, of his life, I should issue an apology. I’m so, so sorry.”
Asbille was also a fan of Lafferty before she was cast and watched One Tree Hill prior to getting the gig. “I was completely a Nathan girl,” she said. “I had such a crush on James too, he was so nice. It was cruel, the whole kiss thing.”
She quipped, “We don’t wanna get what we wish for.”
In season 6, Asbille was 17, but One Tree Hill had done a four year time-jump, aging most characters closer to the actors’ real ages. However, this put Asbille even further away from her character in age. She was still in high school while playing a 20-something trying to seduce her ex, who was in a committed relationship.
Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Lenz and Hilarie Burton’s Sweetest BFF Moments
“I also remember y’all being so wonderful, and protective as well, especially when we were shifting gears [in later seasons, and] she was getting more sexy,” Asbille recalled to Burton Morgan and Lenz. “[I was] having to take my shirt off, and I remember being really nervous about all of that and not knowing what I was supposed to do. I remember Sophia specifically being really protective, of like, ‘Alright, so we’re wearing a tube top,’ which I really appreciate because it’s scary navigating all of this and you don’t know that you can say no.”
While her former costars were appalled looking back at the story lines she was part of as a child, Asbille assured them that she wasn’t terribly uncomfortable thanks largely to the women on set.
“Listen, I had so much support through y’all and with the crew because I grew up with the crew from 13 to 17, so I always felt really protected,” she said.
One Tree Hill launched Asbille’s career, and she went on to star in Teen Wolf, Fargo and Yellowstone.
