Jennie Garth says Beverly Hills, 90210 'taught me to be threatened by other women’
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Beverly Hills 90210 star Jennie Garth is opening up about her personal experiences filming the iconic '90s drama — and about how those experiences impacted her as a young woman navigating the industry.
On a recent episode of their iHeartRadio 90210MG podcast, Garth and her BFF/former costar Tori Spelling, who played Donna, addressed the on set attitudes that, even if they weren't aware of it at the time, were formative to their young adult life — and not in a good way.
"The show brought out a super competitive part of me being in that environment of being judged because of my looks or how I looked in an outfit. It was just a different day and age and it gave us young girls a lot of mixed messages. I, for many years, struggled with it," Garth said in the podcast.
Everett Collection Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling in 90210
She admitted that she at first attributed those feelings to the behavior of her male costars like Jason Priestly, Luke Perry, and Brian Austen Green.
"As a young girl, maybe I blamed it on the guys too — it was all their fault. But it was how I saw it," she acknowledged. "If I'm honest, I think the show kind of taught me to be threatened by other girls, be threatened by other women and be more competitive because I wanted our costars' approval or attention."
Garth was only 18 when she was cast as Kelly Taylor on the hit drama series, which launched not only her career but the careers of nearly all its cast members including Spelling, Priestly, and Shannen Doherty. The original 90210 series aired from 1990-2000, but Garth kept her ties with the show tight as the franchise evolved over the years. She reprised her role as Kelly Taylor in 2008's CW's spin-off series 90210, and also in the 2019 FOX reboot BH90210 — a project she developed with Spelling.
Although Garth still speaks fondly about her time with the series and enjoys sharing memories, she's not apologetic about the mindset that she carried with her even after she left the show and put distance between her and her iconic character.
"It messed with me on a deeper level and not until later in life that I kind of think it wasn't ever about the other girls," she revealed. "And why did I ever make the other girls an enemy in my mind?"
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