Advertisement
Penn Badgley, who became a household name thanks to his role as the brooding outsider Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl, is opening up about the downsides of his rise to fame. While the show catapulted him into stardom, Badgley now admits that the glamorous, image-driven world of Hollywood wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. In a candid interview with The Guardian, the actor reflects on the impact the show and celebrity culture had on him, and why he doesn’t miss the attention that came with it.
Badgley didn’t shy away from calling out the “superficial celebrity aspect” that came with his time on the CW teen drama, which ran from 2007 to 2012. He explained, “What was that show other than aesthetic? That was its thing, the way we all looked.” He acknowledged that Gossip Girl thrived more on the characters’ appearances than on any deeper substance, something that ultimately didn’t sit well with him.
He went on to express his discomfort with how he was perceived at the height of his fame, saying, “I didn’t particularly love the superficial celebrity aspect of the way I was perceived.” The actor reflected on how his early career pushed him into an industry that often equated his worth with his looks, something that became especially difficult for him as he dealt with depression and isolation. For Badgley, the industry’s focus on conventional beauty was both enticing and suffocating.
“It’s impossible to escape the superficiality of this work,” Badgley shared, noting that once you recognize that, it’s impossible not to see the superficiality of society as a whole.
In addition to the pressures of fame, Badgley also revealed that he struggled with body dysmorphia as a child, which only intensified the pressure to meet Hollywood’s beauty standards. He confessed that aspiring to look like the classic actors he admired “just seemed like an impossibility.”
Gossip Girl, based on the books by Cecily von Ziegesar, followed a group of wealthy teens living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, with Badgley’s Dan Humphrey serving as the outsider who infiltrates their elite world. Although the 2021 Max reboot of Gossip Girl referenced both Dan and Serena (Blake Lively), neither of the original stars returned to reprise their roles, marking a clear break from the show’s glittery past.
Even though Gossip Girl remains a beloved part of pop culture, Badgley’s reflections on his time on the show peel back the shiny surface to reveal the emotional toll of living in the spotlight. These days, Badgley has chosen to focus on darker, more complex roles—most notably playing Joe Goldberg in You. The actor has found peace and fulfillment away from the superficial trappings of fame, opting for roles that allow him to explore much deeper, more meaningful characters.