2025-04-24
Penn Badgley describes contact with ‘Gossip Girls' co-stars as ‘amicable silence'
Penn Badgley says he still feels “love” for his former “Gossip Girl” co-stars, even if they aren’t in constant contact with one another.“Between us all, I think it’s an amicable silence. Like when you have, you know, roommates from college, you’re like, ‘Man, we loved going to school together’ and then you grow up, you sort of go in different ways. But I think there’s just, yeah, it’s just love for them all,” Badgley, 38, told E! News at the Season 5 premiere of his Netflix thriller “You” on April 23.Badgley, who played Dan Humphrey on the hit series that ran from 2007 to 2012, also shared his thoughts on the tragic death of late co-star Michelle Trachtenberg, who played the villainous Georgina Sparks.Badgely called Trachtenberg’s death at age 39 — which was caused by complications of diabetes mellitus — “really surreal” and “really saddening.”He also described Trachtenberg as someone with a “really pure heart.”“What I remember of her is she was incredibly quick to laugh,” said Badgley. “She was really joyous. We all have our ups and downs, our lights and shadows, but she had this, I mean, she was mature, but she had this childlike, joyous laugh.”Badgley also opened up this week about what a “struggle” it was to date co-star Blake Lively while the pair were portraying on-off couple Dan and Serena on the show.Badgley, who shares a son James, 4, and is expecting twins with wife Domino Kirke, recalled on the April 23 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that he felt consumed at the time by the pressures of being on a top-rated TV show.“When you do a television show, you’re doing it constantly because of the nature of that show,” said Badgley. “You feel like you’re constantly, even though no one may be actually asking you to do this, you feel like you’re constantly needing to prove yourself in some manner. Otherwise, what are you doing?”Badgley also said he believed that after six seasons, some viewers weren’t able to differentiate between him and Dan.“You’re seen as this person, you’re called their name out on the street. You also constantly have to be that person at work, and I was 20, I was 21, 22. So like I didn’t have the emotional maturity to understand, to differentiate myself just in terms of self-worth.”“There is not enough separation, I think, for anybody,” said Badgley.Badgley previously spoke glowingly about Lively in a February 2023 interview with Variety.The actor, who told the publication that he “didn’t want to be in television” during his time on “Gossip Girl,” said, “I was biding time a lot with Dan — I was not invested.”He recalled that it was “fun and fast-paced” time in his life until a “dark undercurrent” emerged later in his 20s.When Variety asked the actor if he’d struggled with substance abuse, he said he never did and gave credit to Lively for abstaining from alcohol herself.“Blake didn’t drink, and I think our relationship in some ways saved me from forcing myself to go down that road,” he said.This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:Mom shares the colorectal cancer symptoms that doctors dismissed as a postpartum issue for 5 yearsTiffany Haddish tears up talking about the ‘good hurt’ that comes from a loved one’s deathJay Leno opens up about being his wife Mavis’ caretaker amid dementia diagnosis: ‘I’m glad I didn’t cut and run’This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
