Penn Badgley Doesn’t Miss “Superficial Celebrity Aspect” Of ‘Gossip Girl’​on April 18, 2025 at 3:25 am

Although Penn Badgley is grateful for his breakout role as Dan Humphrey, the outsider character appears to have represented a bit of art imitating life.

The Gossip Girl alum recently reflected on his starring role in the CW teen drama series, which ran for six seasons from 2007 to 2012, and how the role introduced him “superficiality of this work” in Hollywood.

“What was that show other than aesthetic? That was its thing, the way we all looked,” he told The Guardian. “I didn’t particularly love the superficial celebrity aspect of the way I was perceived.”

Badgley explained, “There was just a period where, coming out of depression and isolation, I was jumping willfully into, but also being thrust into, this world where the more conventionally beautiful I seemed, the more successful I might be, the more value I might have. There’s no way to get past the superficiality of this work, and if you recognise that, you can’t help but recognise the superficiality of our culture, because of the way it rewards this work.”

Suffering “body dysmorphia” as a child, Badgley felt like resembling the classic actors he admired “just seemed like an impossibility.”

Based on the books by Cecily von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl follows the privileged students of a private school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the lives of whom are documented on the ruthless titular blogger’s website.

As Dan Humphrey, Badgley played the Brooklyn outsider who found his way into the elite clique through his romance with Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively). Although both characters were referenced in the 2021 Max revival, neither Badgley or Lively reprised their roles.