Penn Badgley almost didn’t become everybody’s favorite lonely boy.
The Gossip Girl alum shed more light onto why he nearly turned down the role of Dan Humphrey on the beloved TV series, which ended its six-season run in 2012.
“I had eight years of near financial independence, professional work. I was working. I was tired of television by the time Gossip Girl came around,” Penn told Alex Cooper on the April 23 episode of Call Her Daddy. “I famously said—I don’t know famously—but I’ve said many times, you know, I initially turned the role down, and I didn’t just kind of turn it down, I mean, I said, ‘So grateful you thought of me, wish you well, but no thanks.'”
“And they went on to try and cast the whole thing and cast Dan. And they evidently could cast everybody, but Dan,” he continued. “The point is not about Gossip Girl. The point is, by the time I was 20, I was feeling really disillusioned and dried up and tired of being in Hollywood, of acting. I’ve been doing it my entire, since I was 12. When you’re 20 years old, you’ve been doing something professionally since you were 12, that’s your life.”
When Alex asked the 38-year-old to clarify why he was “done” with acting at the time, Penn said that he’d gotten “really close to a number of great roles in these great independent films,” which he ultimately didn’t land, and he also had an itch to pursue music.
As he explained, “I had a tiredness about me at 20 that I think is not typical for a 20-year-old because I’ve been working for so long, you know?”
While Penn was always clear about his initial disinterest in taking on the role of Dan, the You star—who revealed that he had been financially independent from his parents by the age of 15—ended up changing his mind based on a variety of real-life factors because “the stakes were high.”
“I was close to broke, although that was not…I was looking forward to figuring that out,” Penn shared. “I’d had a pretty Spartan year behind me, you know, I was enjoying my way of life. But the future was real unknown. And I think, you know, it’s not like I could go live with my parents.”
“My manager certainly spoke about it in a way that he thought it was a good idea,” he said of signing on for Gossip Girl. “A few key people close to me, and then it was New York City. Getting to live in New York City—where I’ve now lived since and which is my home—I’ve always wanted to live there.”
Penn, who had previously appeared on shows like The Young and theRestless, The Brothers Garcia and Do Over, would go on to sign a six-year contract for The CW series, for which he proved to be one of the more experienced young actors on set.
“I chose to do it ’cause it felt like it could be an exciting new experience,” he said. “I’m grateful for it, but it took some time. Because, keep in mind that I started in a place where I was tired, disillusioned because literally, compared to the others, oddly, I was like a veteran.”
And, in the 13 years since Gossip Girl wrapped, Penn has developed a complicated relationship with the series.
“You also think about a show like that, it’s hard to grow beyond it,” he explained. “Next year I’ll be 40. I will still be answering questions about this show I decided to do when I was 20. I’m glad; It is what it is.”
“Certainly that’s fine, but it sets you on a certain track that you have to, in a sense, resist,” Penn went on. “You have to learn how to work with it, interface with it, otherwise it just sort of takes you on its ride. So, you know, you’re kind of playing, you’re taking a huge risk, I think in a way actually, you know if it’s gonna set you up to do only some things and you’re gonna have to fight to try and do other things.”
Keep reading for more updates on the Gossip Girl cast…
Blake Lively
The actress, who portrayed It Girl Serena van der Woodsen, has been keeping very busy since the end of Gossip Girl. A few months prior to the 2012 finale, Lively tied the knot with actor Ryan Reynolds and they’re now the proud parents to four kids: daughters James, Inez and Betty and son Olin, born in 2023. In recent years, she’s starred in hit movies The Age of Adaline, The Shallows, A Simple Favor and The Rhythm Section.
Penn Badgley
Lonely Boy no more! Following his run as Dan Humphrey (who, spoiler alert, was ultimately revealed to be Gossip Girl), Badgley has been making headlines for his turn as stalker Joe Goldberg on the hit Netflix series You.
On a more personal note, Badgley is also a married man. The actor tied the knot with Domino Kirke, the sister of Girls actress Jemima Kirke, in Feb. 2017. They welcomed their first baby together in August 2020. Of course, fans of GG remember Badgley and Lively dated during the show’s early run before splitting in 2010.
Leighton Meester
The actress—a.k.a. privileged Upper East Sider Blair Waldorf—has been making a splash in the comedy world in recent years, starring in ABC’s Single Parents.
Meester married actor Adam Brody (aka The O.C.‘s Seth Cohen) and they’re parents of a daughter named Arlo, born in 2015, and a son born in 2020, whose name has not been revealed.
Chace Crawford
For six seasons, viewers swooned over Crawford’s character Nate Archibald. Since the 2012 finale, Crawford has starred in ABC’s Blood & Oil, as well as films Eloise and All About Nina. Crawford now stars in the Amazon original series The Boys, renewed for a fifth and final season in May 2024.
Ed Westwick
Westwick rose to fame as Chuck Bass and after hanging up his character’s signature scarf, he went on to appear in 2013’s Romeo & Juliet and star in 2015’s short-lived ABC drama Wicked City. He also starred in the British TV series White Gold.
In the fall of 2017, the Los Angeles Police Department started an investigation into sexual assault allegations made by several women against Westwick, which he denied. In July 2018, the Los Angeles County District Attorney declined to prosecute Westwick after determining there wasn’t enough evidence to file charges in two instances and a third accuser failed to cooperate with investigators.
For the last few years, Westwick has been a relationship with actress Amy Jackson. They announced their engagement in January 2024, marrying in Italy that August.
Taylor Momsen
Little J has come a long way since her days trying to snag a place in Blair’s crew. Momsen was just 14 when she starred as Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl, though she left the show in 2010 as music was her ultimate passion from an early age. She went on to form and front her band The Pretty Reckless when she was 17.
As for a potential return to acting? “I never say never anymore in life, especially now with all the curveballs the world is throwing everyone,” she told E! at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards, her first red carpet in five years. “But no immediate plans.”
Jessica Szohr
Szohr burst onto the Hollywood scene with her breakout role as Vanessa Abrams in GG. Since that time, the actress has appeared in films The Internship, Ted 2 and Two Night Stand. She’s also been on TV shows Kingdom, Shameless and The Orville.
She gave birth to daughter Bowie Ella with hockey pro fiancé Brad Richardson in January 2021 and the pair went on to tie the knot in August 2024.
Kristen Bell
Since the finale in 2012, the snarky narrator—who returned for the 2021 reboot—tied the knot with longtime love Dax Shepard, the pair welcoming daughter Lincoln in March 2013, followed by daughter Delta 21 months later. In the acting world, the actress starred in Hulu’s Veronica Mars revival and NBC’s The Good Place. Bell also fronted the Bad Moms films and voices Anna in Disney’s Frozen and Frozen 2.
Sebastian Stan
Remember when Bucky Barnes was on was on Gossip Girl? That’s right, the actor appeared in 11 episodes of the CW series as bad boy Carter Baizen from 2007 to 2010 and dated Leighton Meester during that time.
Since his time on the show, Stan has become a household name thanks to his role as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Captain America and Avengers films. He also starred on Disney+’s The Falcon and Winter Soldier opposite Anthony Mackie and in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy.
Hilary Duff
It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a decade since Duff made a guest appearance on GG. In her six-episode arc, she appeared as Hollywood star Olivia Burke, who sparked a romance with Dan while at NYU and infamously engaged in a threesome with the not-so-Lonely Boy and his BFF Vanessa.
Since then, Duff starred in her own hit TV series, Younger and How I Met Your Father. She was about to step back into Lizzie McGuire’s platform sandals for a Disney+ revival, but it didn’t work out due to differing creative visions.
In 2019, the “So Yesterday” singer married musician Matthew Koma, and they share daughters Banks, Mae and Townes. She’s also mom to son Luca from her past marriage to Mike Comrie.
