Penn Badgley and Chace Crawford Reunite to Talk About Gossip Girl and More
“But in a way, it’s almost like Dan, just with bloody hands.” -Penn Badgley
Spotted— Penn Badgley, forever in our hearts known as Lonely Boy, and Chace Crawford, or Nate Archibald, reunite to discuss Gossip Girl and their new roles years later. In an interview by Variety, the pair discuss their characters on Netflix’s You and Amazon’s The Boys, as well as reminiscing Gossip Girl and even their first iPhones.
When it comes to the hit shows Gossip Girl and You, the former co-stars compared Penn’s characters Dan Humphrey and Joe Goldberg. Crawford agrees with a lot of fans about the unanticipated Gossip Girl reveal, mentioning, “What’s interesting about Joe — it is almost like an odd continuation of Dan. At the end of Gossip Girl the show, whatever your reaction is on whether it was smart to do that or not, that he’s Gossip Girl — it didn’t really line up with the character of Dan,” to which Badgley responded, “Yeah.”
The two also discussed the cultural impact Gossip Girl had at the time it aired. Badgley stated, “Back in 2007, people wanted to watch a show like “Gossip Girl” because it was aspirational. It was like an escape. It seemed like it struck a certain cultural chord because it was this aspirational fantastical vision of excess and wealth,” He continued, “But now, cut to 13 years later, people are not interested in that. And I think rightfully so. Now they’re interested in deconstructing why we’re so fascinated with that in the first place. We’re interested in deconstructing those systems of privilege. I’m not saying that our television shows are doing that, but I’m saying that’s what people are more interested in, so therefore these shows reflect that.”
Both Crawford and Badgley take viewers down memory lane, talking about the release of the very first iPhone and Twitter. Crawford recalled, “Remember, ’07 was when the very first iPhone came out. I remember you got it. I remember you had it at a Halloween party. You had the first iPhone, and think about that now. I remember we were more about camera phones and this and that. There wasn’t social media.” Badgley responded, “Blake [Lively] got me that. I literally was like, ‘I don’t want this thing. It’s so cumbersome, and it has all these apps on it.’”
Looking back one of their most iconic roles on TV, Crawford said, “I don’t like really watching myself that much in general. So to go back and open that time capsule, I think there would be some nostalgic value. We’re doing that when you come to L.A. We’ll have a drink.” Badgley responded, “A little watching party. Dude, if we live-tweet a viewing of any episode of Gossip Girl, people would love that.” Yes Penn, we would absolutely love to see it.
Check out the rest of the interview below!