Exclusive Interview
‘Guarding Stars’ Author Katherine Center Reveals Why Jared Padalecki Is Perfect ‘Bodyguard’ Lead
What To Know
- Katherine Center’s novel The Bodyguard is being adapted into the Netflix film Guarding Stars.
- Center exclusively revealed to Swooon why Jared Padalecki and Leighton Meester are the perfect leads.
- She explains why the adaptation shifts the story’s setting to Christmas and teases Walker Hayes’ role in the film.
“My daughter is a huge Supernatural fan,” Katherine Center, author of The Bodyguard, confessed. “So my stock went up so much. ”
Ahead of the release of her upcoming novel, The Shippers — which you need to add to your TBR this second, by the way — Center sat down with Swooon to discuss her May 19 release and her first Netflix-bound novel, The Bodyguard. Renamed Guarding Stars, the adaptation is set to hit the streamer before the end of 2026, starring two beloved actors: Supernatural star Jared Padalecki and Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester… a.k.a. the Holy Grail of rom-com leads.
The Bodyguard features Hannah Brooks (Meester), an Executive Protection Agent, who just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton (Padalecki) from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker. When Jack’s mom gets sick, he has to return home to his family’s Texas ranch, asking Hannah to pretend to be his girlfriend so his family doesn’t know he’s in danger. The film is currently in post-production.
Before filming wrapped, Center was able to visit the set. Taking us behind-the-scenes, she revealed to Swooon, “I got to see them filming some scenes at the Stapleton ranch. The thing that just kept knocking my socks off was that they felt like a family. It was so crazy because I had never seen these people before, right? I showed up on the set, and there’s Andie MacDowell playing the mom. I got to sit one room over, watching them sitting at their family table, having the conversation where Jack and Hannah confess to the whole family that they’ve been acting the whole time.”
As she put it, watching the scene “was completely trippy because I was like, here is a moment that used to just exist in words on a page and in my imagination, and now these real, actual people are making this moment alive. It felt like a family, the way that they were lovingly frustrated with each other. I loved it. It was really fun to watch.”
When it comes to the cast, Center gushed, “I’m super excited that Jared Padalecki is playing Jack Stapleton. Jack’s a world-famous Texas actor in the book, and Jared Padalecki is also a world-famous Texas actor. He’s from San Antonio, he lives in Austin, and he is so famous. I mean, I knew he was famous before, but after the movie got announced, and I started getting messages from Turkey to Brazil, I was like, ‘Oh, this guy is truly, truly famous.'”
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Center revealed, “I’ve met him and his lovely wife, Gen. They are the people who got this whole project going because they are both big readers. She found The Bodyguard herself because she just likes to read. I’ve gotten to meet them several times because we’re both in Texas, and our paths have crossed a lot of fun situations, like an event last summer for my book, The Love Haters. I got to bring my 85-year-old mom backstage, and Jared gave my mom this super warm bear hug. As we were driving back to Houston, my husband and I were like, ‘He is Jack Stapleton.'”
As for Meester, Center explained, “She has all those qualities that make a great rom-com heroine. She’s so likable, and you are rooting for her, but she also can break your heart a little bit. I think she’s going to be perfect, too.” When asked if Meester and Padalecki are as phenomenal together as fans would expect, Center sang their praises.
Aside from the title change, Guarding Stars is making one major pivot from the Center’s novel: While the book is set at Thanksgiving, the movie will be going full-on Christmas. “I’m actually really excited about it because, for me, Thanksgiving is very similar to Christmas,” Center revealed to Swooon. “What I think it’s going to enable them to do, which I’m actually really excited about, is to kind of visually capture the kind of warm-heartedness of the story.”
Diving into the warmth of the original novel, Center explained, “Jack Stapleton is the Sexiest Man Alive, but he’s also a hugger, right? And he’s kind-hearted, and he’s a good man in this very essential way.” Turning to Hannah, she shared, “Hannah has had a rough few years, and specifically, a very rough time right before the story starts with her mom dying and a horrible breakup.” Jack’s family welcomes her with open arms.
“The beating heart of the story is the connection that she makes with everybody and that feeling of home that’s always so bittersweet and lovely — it’s happy, but it’s a little heartbreaking, too. Setting it at Christmas, they’ve leaned into winteriness in a way that you would never get in Texas at Thanksgiving. What it allows you to do is contrast between the cold and the warm, and really lean into the warm in this way that is going to capture the heart of the book in a way that you maybe can’t if everybody’s just milling around in a green field.”
During our chat, we uncovered another massive addition to the original novel. “Country music star Walker Hayes is in the movie.” Center revealed, “I love his song ‘Fancy Like,’ and I’m pretty sure — and I don’t know, because I haven’t even seen it — but I’m pretty sure that he’s going to play a Christmas version of ‘Fancy Like’ in the story.”
Can the holiday season come any sooner?!
Guarding Stars, 2026, Netflix
