Penn Badgley enjoys a massive fandom for his famous role as Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl. Eventually, the show's ending revealed that he was the real Gossip Girl, and it is one of the most unexpected endings of a series ever.
With Netflix's hit thriller YOU, Penn won over the audience with his act as Joe Goldberg and his bone-chilling activities. However, recently the actor told The Guardian about the cost of fame and his struggle with body dysmorphia.
The actor also revealed that he was glad that YOU was ending with the 5th season.
He said, "The way this show plays with questions of how we reward bad people, that was a more playful question eight to 10 years ago. It's not as playful a question now, and it comes with way more stakes, and I'm glad we're not going to be playing with it any longer. And for that reason, I'm really glad it's ending."
Furthermore, speaking about his fight against body dysmorphia, he said, "I know that I hated my body and simply wanted a different one."
While talking about the importance of vanity when it comes to being a film star, he spoke about how Gossip Girl was all about aesthetics.
The actor mentioned, "What was that show other than aesthetic? That was its thing, the way we all looked. I didn't particularly love the superficial celebrity aspect of the way I was perceived."
Penn also shed light on while he was coming out of depression and isolation, he couldn't help but be consumed by the fact that success was directly proportional to how good he looked and the value that it entailed.
Penn added, "There was just a period where coming out of depression and isolation, I was jumping wilfully into, but also being thrust into, this world where the more conventionally beautiful I seemed, the more successful I might be, the more value I might have."
YOU Final Season is dropping on Netflix on April 24, 2025.
