'Gossip Girl' star Penn Badgley says he felt 'overwhelmed' by the fame he got

Penn Badgley, who played the character of Dan Humphrey in 2017's Gossip Girl, recently opened up about being overwhelmed by the fame that came with the show. Badgley's character, Dan, grew increasingly popular for his lead role as being the love interest of Serena Van Der Woodsen. Now in his recent chat, Badgley talks about how it felt to be so popular and how he "processed" it. 

Penn Badgley on being overwhelmed by Gossip Girl fame

In a recent appearance on the Baha'i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson podcast, Badgley spoke about how fame can be "overwhelming in today's times. He also spoke about how he had "processed" his time on the popular teen drama but didn't enjoy how conscious he had become because of it. The actor said:

"The most meaningful form of action I saw, as a person who'd been on Gossip Girl, as a person who had, at this point, hundreds of thousands of followers — yeah, because I got on social media late. If I had gotten on in the middle of Gossip Girl, I very well could've had millions upon millions — but it would've been for a particular reason, you know? So I was thinking, the most meaningful contribution I have to make as an individual is on these platforms."

The actor who recently starred in Netflix's psycho-thriller show You added, "And in trying to have a pure intention and honest interaction on these spaces, I also found that I was completely overwhelmed by being conscious of how many likes or retweets or whatever [that I got]. It was such a convoluted way to be like, 'acting."

Badgley also spoke about how being on social media was not the "most fulfilling or meaningful contribution" that he could make to the world. Badgley has also had issues with anxiety from his fame in the past, recalling an incident while doing a press tour for You, in Manila. He explained:

"It was packed with thousands of screaming adults. In all of my years of witnessing some form of adulation, like, the fan experience."

However, Penn Badgley also admitted that the anxiety attacks have now become, "more and more a thing of the past," adding how it wasn't something that he felt "challenged by" anymore. Badgley starred on six seasons of Gossip Girl, which was based on Cecily von Ziegesar's book series of the same name, along with actors like Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick, Taylor Momsen, Kelly Rutherford, Matthew Settle and Jessica Szohr among others. 

The actor is currently the star of Netflix's extremely popular and critically acclaimed thriller series, YOU, which currently has two seasons.

IMAGE - SHUTTERSTOCK