Penn Badgley struggled with fame from the very start of his career. The You star shot to fame at 20 with Gossip Girl, and while that role made him a household name, it also came with a massive personal cost. In a raw interview with The Guardian, Penn opened up about how “extremely unnatural” fame felt and how it messed with his identity, self-image, and relationships.
He said he doesn’t want pity, but fame completely changed the way people saw and treated him, and that took a real toll. “In order to even appreciate or utilize the privileges that come with it, one has to really grapple with the ways in which it’s completely disabled parts of you,” he shared. And for a long time, he did just that-questioning whether it was all worth it.
The now 39-year-old actor, who’s expecting twins with wife Domino Kirke, explained that he once “hated” his body and felt pressured to fit a certain image. Acting only made that worse. “There was a period where… the more conventionally beautiful I seemed, the more successful I might be, the more value I might have,” he admitted. That kind of thinking, he said, comes from how both Hollywood and our culture reward surface-level beauty.
Talking about Gossip Girl, Penn didn’t hold back. “What was that show other than aesthetic? That was its thing, the way we all looked,” he said. He never really vibed with the fame that came from being part of such a glam-heavy show and admitted, “I didn’t particularly love the superficial celebrity aspect of the way I was perceived.”
There was a point when Penn Badgley seriously thought about quitting acting altogether. He just couldn’t reconcile the pressure and the image with who he was-or who he wanted to be. But eventually, he found a way through all of it.
What helped? The Baha’i faith. Through prayer, meditation, and a deeper inner shift, Penn found his way back-not just to acting, but to himself. “That is what allowed me to persevere,” he said. Now, he prioritizes being a good father, husband, friend, and colleague above everything else, even Hollywood success.
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