Overview

• Penn Badgley shared that he initially turned down the role of Dan Humphrey due to fatigue with television but accepted after facing financial hardship.
• He described struggling to separate his personal identity from his character, citing the constant nature of television work and celebrity culture.
• Badgley admitted that in his early 20s, he lacked the emotional maturity to differentiate his self-worth from public perceptions of his character.
• The actor reflected on dating co-star Blake Lively during Gossip Girl’s run, noting the difficulty of maintaining boundaries between his on-screen and off-screen lives.
• Despite his later successes, Badgley acknowledged that Gossip Girl continues to define his career and public identity.