Penn Badgley tells why it was a 'struggle' to 'differentiate' himself from his 'Gossip Girl' role

Los Angeles, April 24 (IANS) For actor Penn Badgley it was difficult to leave his “Gossip Girl” character Dan Humphrey behind after the show concluded in 2012.

In a recent appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Badgley said that it was difficult to “move on” from the role after starring in the hit series for six seasons.

“It was a struggle,” Badgley said, reports variety.com.

“When you do a film, you do it once and give it your all, and then you move on… When you do a television show, you’re doing it constantly because of the nature of that show.”

He added: “I was 20, 21, 22, so I didn’t have the emotional maturity to understand how to differentiate myself in terms of self-worth. What people seemed to think of Dan seemed to be what people thought of me.”

Badgley added that the “celebrity culture” in the late 2000s didn’t help either.

During the peak of “Gossip Girl,” the “You” star said he was constantly being asked about his dating life, which made him feel like, “you’re constantly needing to prove yourself in some manner, otherwise what are you doing?”

“Gossip Girl” ran for 121 episodes from 2007 to 2012. Starring Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford, Kelly Rutherford, Matthew Settle and Jessica Szohr, the show followed a group of wealthy New York teens whose scandalous lifestyles are repeatedly disrupted by an anonymous blogger known only as Gossip Girl.

In the show’s final episode, “New York, I Love You XOXO,” Badgley’s character Dan Humphrey is said to be the notorious Gossip Girl, citing his outcast status among the elite as the reason for starting the blog.

Badgley came to prominence playing Phillip Chancellor IV on the soap opera The Young and the Restless.

He featured in the comedy films John Tucker Must Die, Drive-Thru and Easy A, the thriller films The Stepfather and Margin Call, the biographical film Greetings from Tim Buckley, and the drama film The Paper Store.

--IANS

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