Penn Badgley and Chase Crawford reunited for a virtual reunion as part of Variety's Actors on Actors series and they definitely did not disappoint. Penn revealed that he hasn't seen the show in a while and Chase basically said that he does not want to watch it anytime soon.
"Buddy, you have to strap me to a gurney and pop my eyes open like Clockwork Orange. But no, it would be interesting to see the first couple maybe," Chase said.
"I know that I watched with my now wife, with Domino [Kirke], before we got married. It must’ve been six months after we met. She had never seen it, and that’s the last time I can remember seeing an episode," Penn said. "I remember even then, it has nothing to do with the show, but it was very hard to watch. These snapshots of yourself when you’re 20, 21, 22 years old. Who can enjoy that? Sometimes it’s just uncomfortable."
While they haven't seen it in a while, they're already making plans to get together and watch it.
"I don’t like really watching myself that much in general. So to go back and open that time capsule, I think there would be some nostalgic value. We’re doing that when you come to L.A. We’ll have a drink," Chase said.
"A little watching party," Penn replied. "Dude, if we live-tweet a viewing of any episode of Gossip Girl, people would love that."
Penn also opened up about a special gift that Blake Lively gave him that he wasn't 100 percent a fan of at the time and how Gossip Girl affected social media.
"Remember, '07 was when the very first iPhone came out. I remember you got it. I remember you had it at a Halloween party," Chase said. "You had the first iPhone, and think about that now. I remember we were more about camera phones and this and that. There wasn’t social media."
"Blake got me that. I literally was like, 'I don’t want this thing. It’s so cumbersome, and it has all these apps on it,'" Penn revealed. "I remember even meeting a publicist that first season, and she was talking about this thing called Twitter. And as she explained Twitter, I was like, 'What is this nonsense? I don’t want to have a Twitter account, and you tweet. What is this bird thing?' That’s something that actually years later, I think we got to give credit to Gossip Girl.
And that's not the only thing that Gossip Girl changed. Penn also noted that he had a major say in a special dish at the Lotte New York Palace.
"When Blake and I went there to eat, it was probably when we were shooting there. They had a grilled cheese sandwich there called "The Gossip Girl Grilled Cheese Sandwich." And I was like, "You should just call it 'The Gossip Grill,'" he said. "And then, [the manager] took the menu from me and went inside, changed the name right there, printed a different menu and handed me a new menu with my suggestion. And I was like, "OK. This is a way to live."
APPROXIMATELY INFINITE UNIVERSE: The new five-track record by Goddess Complex (the compositional outlet of musician and composer Cloud Powers) was a more than welcome addition to my listening this week. As usual, Powers pulls water from a very deep well—which includes influences as far flung as Yoko Ono, Pamela Z, Laurie Anderson, et al.—and this new collection, In The Bay Of Pigs, is fully refreshing. Working largely via cyclical electronic manipulations and well-chosen samples, Powers’ strength often comes from the seeming ability to anticipate the next portion of whatever collage she’s creating. And that’s important because it’s a markedly different approach than letting sounds spin around and throwing a title on whatever comes out. The most notable track here is “SaHh,” which draws the ears in via what is first heard as gull squawks but turns distinctly into an underlying rhythm upon which half-step keyboards and dreamily doze-y vocals are laid. The electro smoothness of “MOR” and the glitchy plea of “Rose” are swell, too. This is available at goddesscomplex.bandcamp.com.
Goddess Complex Goddess Complex
FALL INTO THE WELL: Athens poets Alex Johns (a 2019 Georgia Author of the Year nominee) and Zach Mitcham are also talented songwriters who make music under the name Hello, Bombardier! They’ve got a new album out now titled OK When You Are, and I’ve been enjoying it thoroughly. The pair is adept at crafting multi-layered compositions, but with an understanding of the importance of empty space. The songs here can be deceptively gentle, but sneak up on the listener in much the same way as, say, Pinback or Tycho. These qualities are on full display during album highlights like “At Least On Your Special Day” and album opener “Waste This Day With You.” The final track is named “We Won’t Get There Soon,” and it’s a complex number that blends a shockingly beautiful tune with a sometimes jarring chorus progression. Ultimately, like everything else here, it works. Give this a solid chance by heading to hellobombardier.bandcamp.com and spinning it a few times for yourself.
UNDERCOVER: Daniel Shroyer (Mandible Rider, Shadebeast) just did a split release with Ihlyatt, where he goes under the name Ixian. Although the latter has two tracks featured here and Ixian only has one, I suppose seniority does have its benefits. Shroyer’s track is named “All My Friends Are Plants Now,” and it builds from a relatively buried organ progression into a swirling dark and semi-ambient track. It’s full of oscillations and other hooha, including a D-beat that may well just be electro-manipulation, and for nearly its entirety walks a line very similar to black metal, but then turns relatively full-throated around the seven-minute mark. Ihlyatt’s turn at bat delivers the surprisingly tuneful and melodic mid-tempo rocker named “Other Electricities,” albeit fronted by nearly two minutes of sampled dialogue from somewhere. Similarly, “Blue Jaunte” slides along a solidly groovy bass rhythm custom built for heady escapism. Check this out, as well as other Ixian tunes, at ixian.bandcamp.com.
JUST THESE DUDES: Nearly 30 years ago, there was a band named Hubbard’s Cupboard here in town that, for a couple or three years, did some things, played some shows, recorded some songs then went the way of the buffalo. Well, now under pandemic conditions, the band decided to record their version of R.E.M.’s “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” All things considered, it’s a decently executed—albeit completely unnecessary—cover of the original and the accompanying video is chock full of rando film and video clips that prove the Internet Archive does indeed have a purpose. I’d like to specifically point out that the band faithfully replicates Mike Mill’s honky-tonk piano section, complete with glissando, right around the two minute mark, which is exactly where it should be. You’ll have to head to YouTube and look this up for yourself, but if you just wanna hear the tune, head over to hubbardscupboard.bandcamp.com.
ONE THING AT A TIME: Songwriter Jackson Gaines has run through a few bands since he started playing several years ago, among them Dank Sinatra, Public Pretenders and Old House. Lately he’s been recording, like everyone else, undercover of COVID and is planning his first full-length solo release. He reports he’s got several songs completed, but only one, “Running In Circles,” is available at the moment. All instruments were played and recorded by Gaines, with mixing and mastering assistance from Jay Rodgers and Joel Hatstat, respectively. The song pretty much describes, as Gaines says, “constantly moving and never really ending up anywhere.” Musically, it reminds me very much of songs that appeared on the soundtrack to “The O.C.” in that it’s breezy and eminently listenable while also having lyrics that are universal enough to be open to interpretation. It should be noted that there’s about a two-second Allman Brothers-style guitar flourish right near the beginning, too, which was a nice touch. You can hear this on Spotify.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
Whether celebrities use tattoos to commemorate a role, pay tribute to a loved one, or just to fit their aesthetic, their body art is often analyzed by fans to gain further insight into who they are as a person.
Some people, like Johnny Depp and Zoe Kravitz, have used tattoos to tell their own stories or picked out some visually stunning art to adorn their skin.
Other famous figures, however, have permanent markings that can be cringeworthy or even downright disrespectful. Ariana Grande, for example, botched the Japanese spelling of her hand tattoo, and T-Pain has a meme of Jackie Chan on his hand.
Here are some of the best and worst celebrity tattoos of all time.
In You, Badgley's Joe Goldberg is a lot like Dan, but with a far darker side. He's just as bookish and also little bit of a snob, but Joe's ultimate aim is true love — at least, that's what he's telling himself every time he falls in love with a new woman. As the Deep in Amazon original seriesThe Boys, Crawford shows off a similar sinister side, using his outward charm to flex his power over the mortals around him. The good boys of the Upper East Side are long gone, folks.
Our team is dedicated to finding and telling you more about the products and deals we love. If you love them too and decide to purchase through the links below, we may receive a commission. Pricing and availability are subject to change.
As a woman who grew up in an English, Spanish and French-speaking household, my upbringing was just as eclectic as one would think. From a young age, I learned the art of code-switching, language blending (what I call combining two or more languages together) and what it meant to celebrate one’s history while simultaneously working for a better future.
Dancing to SOCA beats while filling my belly with soup joumou and red snapper is STILL how I prefer to spend my days, but knowing that you’re holding onto small pockets of culture through music, food and life experiences is something that nobody can ever take away.
As of 2018, there were almost 13.2 million Caribbean Americans in the US, comprised of people from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Barbados.
So of course, sak pasé, my loves! Qué lo qué, everyone?!
Anywho, we wanted to spotlight different celebrities in the fashion and beauty space who you may have not known were Caribbean (or of Caribbean descent). There are SO many more we could add to this list, but this is just to get you started.
1. Rihanna
Credit: Getty Images
Rihanna is an award-winning singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Of course, she’s also the founder of Fenty Beauty!
2. Azede Jean-Pierre
Credit: Getty Images
Azede Jean-Pierre is a Haitian-born fashion designer who debuted her line in 2012. Michelle Obama and Solange Knowles have even been spotted in her dresses.
3. Naomi Campbell
Credit: Getty Images
Naomi Campbell is a supermodel, actress and businesswoman known for international success as a model and activism work for Black people in the fashion industry.
4. Carly Cushnie
Credit: Getty Images
Carly Cushnie is a luxury fashion designer and both the co-founder of Cushnie Et Ochs and founder of Cushnie. The Cushnie Collection is worn by influential women including Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Gal Gadot, Lupita Nyong’o, Ava Duvernay, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Lopez, Ashley Graham and Padma Lakshmi, among many others.
5. Paola Mathé
Paola Mathé is a creative director, photographer and founder of Fanm Djanm, a headwrap collection and popular lifestyle brand.
6. Nicki Minaj
Credit: Getty Images
Nicki Minaj is a Trinidadian-born rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and model. Minaj is cited as one of the most influential female rap artists of all time, where she’s received numerous accolades including six American Music Awards, 11 BET Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards and two Billboard Women in Music Awards.
7. Tamu McPherson
Credit: Getty Images
Tamu McPherson is the founder of All The Pretty Birds and is a Jamaican-born, Milan-residing fashion editor who has most recently called for more luxury brands to partner with Black creators.
8. Kerby Jean-Raymond
Credit: Getty Images
Kerby Jean-Raymond is a Haitian-American designer and founder of Pyer Moss, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner that also critiques and analyzes race in America.
9. Rajni Jacques
Credit: Getty Images
Rajni Jacques is a creative director, stylist and the current fashion director for Teen Vogue.
10. Garcelle Beauvais
Credit: Getty Images
Garcelle Beauvais is a Haitian–American actress, reality television personality, author and former fashion model. She is best known for her role as Francesca “Fancy” Monroe on The WB television sitcom, “The Jamie Foxx Show.”
11. Kerry Washington
Credit: Getty Images
Kerry Washington is an American actress, producer and director. She gained wide public recognition for starring as Olivia Pope in the ABC drama series “Scandal.”
12. Rosario Dawson
Credit: Getty Images
Rosario Dawson is an American actress, singer and activist who is also a co-founder of Studio 189, an artisan-produced fashion lifestyle brand and social enterprise.
13. Zoe Saldana
Credit: Getty Images
Zoe Saldana is a Puerto Rican-Dominican actress best known for her roles in major films such as “Avatar,” and Gamora in the Marvel series.
14. Tatyana Ali
Credit: Getty Images
Tatyana Ali is an American actress and singer (of Panamanian and Indo-Trinidadian descent) best known for her role as Ashley Banks on the NBC sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
15. Nia Long
Credit: Getty Images
Nia Long is an American actress best known for her roles in shows like “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Empire,” as well as films “Boyz n the Hood,” “Friday,” “The Best Man,” and “Love Jones.”
16. Naomie Harris
Credit: Getty Images
Naomie Harris is a British actress best known for her movies “28 Days Later,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” She was also appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to drama.
While not featuring speaking rolls, the state’s fourth PSA includes a montage of homegrown celebrities including The Alabama Band, Britanny Howard of the band Alabama Shakes, Alabama head football coach Nick Saban, and Paul-St. Paul and the Broken Bones.
“So we’re doing that when you come to L.A.,” said Crawford. “We’ll have a drink, we’ll watch it.”
Badgley upped the ante, adding, “Dude, if we live tweeted a viewing of any episode of “Gossip Girl,” people would love that. Are you kidding?”
Badgley and Crawford reunited for Variety’s annual Actors on Actors issue, which celebrates the best TV performances of the year. Badgley stars as the serial killer Joe in Netflix’s “You,” now in its second season, while Crawford joined the streaming TV world as a superhero on Amazon’s “The Boys.”
Despite becoming famous in 2007 for “Gossip Girl,” a show that seemed to acknowledge social media before the age of social media, Crawford and Badgley were both late to crafting online personas. It was only in 2015 that they joined Twitter, and as of the time of filming Actors on Actors, the pair didn’t even follow each other.
“Forgive me, I don’t follow you,” Badgley asked. “You must have social media accounts now, right?”
Crawford admitted he resisted social media for a long time. “I was trying to be too cool for school. I think I got it in 2015, way late… I’m going to follow you right now,” he said before whipping out his phone.
Badgley, who was filming the conversation on his phone, said he would follow Crawford back after.
After a brief investigation, it appears that neither actor has yet to follow each other. But to be fair, as of press time, Crawford only follows nine people.
This may be just tittle-tattle. If I was doing the old Lying In The Gutters traffic light, this would be an amber light with a hint of red. But Bleeding Cool has been hearing that, straight out of lockdown, Superman will be going through yet another big change, to follow his decision to reveal his true human identity to the world.
And as the comic book series has seen Superman described as King Of The Earth in relation to the United League Of Planets, and deputized by the United Nation as a temporary measure as a result. And then given a warning not to make any similar mistakes by the big espionage agents of the day. The word that reaches Bleeding Cool that this is all being set up so that Superman will become the new leader of The Authority.
Gossip: Superman To Lead The Authority?
The Authority was a superhero comic book series created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, spinning out of their run on Stormwatch, published by DC Comics/Wildstorm, in 1999. The main characters Jenny Sparks, Midnighter, Apollo, The Doctor, Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor and Swift, The Authority was a team of independent superheroes who got the job done by any means necessary, from a position of extreme power. Ostensibly the good guys, the title of the series implied that this was only by circumstance, and their position was easily corruptible and their existence was a very bad thing for humanity indeed. The widescreen approach to superhero storytelling and the military take on superheroes would not only inform Marvel's The Ultimates directly but also the entire tone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The popularity of The Authority was criticised by the Superman comics at the time, with Joe Kelly writing What's So Funny About Truth, Justice And The American Way with Superman fighting an Authority-like team The Elite, led by Jenny Sparks/Spider Jerusalem/Jack Hawksmoor composite Manchester Black – a character that has now spun off itself into other media.
For Superman to lead The Authority means that a lot must have gone regarding Superman's relationship to the rest of the Earth. Also that this is how DC is to bring The Authority back into continuity. After the New 52, characters were seen in the new Stormwatch series, and Midnighter and Apollo got their own books for a short time. Then DC chose to revive the Wildstorm titles in a series of books written or showrun by Warren Ellis, only for the WildCATS series to never get off the ground. While the Flash forward epilogue by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth indicated a return of the WildStorm characters as part of the Generations, 5G and New DC Timeline books.
On the primetime soap “Gossip Girl,” Penn Badgley and Chace Crawford played two very different teen characters: Badgley’s Dan Humphrey was a member of the Brooklyn literati, while Crawford’s Nate Archibald inhabited Manhattan’s social whirl. Now, their grown-up roles subvert those images: Badgley plays a bookseller — and snobbish serial murderer — on Netflix’s “You,” while Crawford makes for a smirking, haughty superhero on Amazon’s “The Boys.” Of course, the two actors had a lot to say about “Gossip Girl” too. They talked to each other over video chat for Variety‘s Actors on Actors issue.
Chace Crawford: Penn, buddy! I checked out Season 1 of “You” a couple of years ago, but watching Season 2 last night, it was interesting to see a guy I worked with for so long on my TV screen again. But was it interesting for you — the show starting out at Lifetime having a certain trajectory, and then being moved to Netflix and being in front of 100 million people instantaneously?
Penn Badgley: I think when so few people were watching it on Lifetime — the network for women, of all networks — I think I was wondering about the moral ambiguity of it. I’ve been transparent about my moral conflict playing this guy. I felt much better about what we were doing once a lot of people were watching, not because I needed the gratification of a lot of viewers, but more like, it makes sense; people are responding to the way we’re coming into this conversation about the tropes of the romantic comedy, and the tropes of the romantic white male lead.
Related Stories
On a streaming show, you make the whole thing before anybody has seen it. Is it the same with yours?
Crawford: It was. Not only did we make the first season, it got picked up for a second season and it still hadn’t come out. It’s interesting to me, because also, man, to be honest, we move on from “Gossip Girl” to playing despicable white male privileged guys. I had the same qualms you did.
Badgley: What I really like about your character, which is for better or worse, similar to mine, is that you start out knowing carte blanche just how bad he is. And honestly, for me, not knowing the tone of the show, the first episode, it continues to unfold, like, “Oh, wait.” I honestly was so excited to see you play this dignified superhero. And then I’m like, “Oh, no. It just took such a turn.”
They’re both shows where immediately they take the trope they’re working with, in your case it’s a superhero and my case I guess it’s like the romantic male lead, and then basically within the first episode it’s bludgeoned it with a sledgehammer. It’s quite interesting to see the commentary and satire that showrunners are most interested in now, and what audiences tend to be the most interested in.
It’s like, we’ve seen the happy, sweet, saccharine stuff, and now we’re looking to deconstruct it all, because we see how it hasn’t served us maybe.
Crawford: I agree with you fully, and actually I had a question about that. I was going to ask you, do you realize how funny you are in some of the moments? He’s almost pathetic —
Badgley: Totally.
Crawford: It’s kind of this weird gray area that you don’t want to feel.
Badgley: I found your character to be far more relatable and sweet. Your guy, especially because by the end, he’s being assaulted himself, which I have to say, I was like, there’s something about a gill and her. And I’m sorry if I’m spoiling this for anybody, but it was so visceral. You couldn’t otherwise show such an intimate kind of assault if we were dealing with actual human genitalia, but the fact that it’s like this. It becomes an allegory in a way where we’re seeing her penetrate you. And it’s weird, man.
Crawford: It was tough for me to even watch, and trust me, it was not fun to shoot either, with the director right in there and giving very specific notes.
Badgley: How much of that was prosthetic? How much of it was CGI?
Crawford: They did the actual prosthetics on my skin for the first part of the scene. They had a great special effects guy replicate my entire torso down to the little chest hair. I’m laying there, and I have my own fake torso on me with the gills that have a little bit more room, and he’s behind me pumping them with these air pumps so they move, and the director is right over me. I’m like, “Guys, I’m nauseous. Can I just get out of here?”
Badgley: I had a similar thing where we had to make a prosthetic of my right arm, because I get my pinkie cut off in the second episode. That was a bit surreal.
When The Deep doesn’t want … does he have a human name?
Crawford: It’s Kevin.
Badgley: That’s funny. So when Kevin, The Deep, when this woman asks him to take off his suit — I don’t know. It was just another moment where I was surprised by the vulnerability of your character. I think my character plays at having vulnerability in a way, but probably has, well — definitely has a much deeper psychosis.
Crawford: What’s interesting about Joe — it is almost like an odd continuation of Dan.
At the end of “Gossip Girl” the show, whatever your reaction is on whether it was smart to do that or not, that he’s Gossip Girl — it didn’t really line up with the character of Dan. Right?
Badgley: Yeah.
Crawford: I just find it interesting that Joe, we kind of know who this guy is. You guys as a show really go for that. It’s interesting why people want to continue watching that and see where it goes. Is it torture porn? Is it shock value? People love it.
Badgley: It’s all of those things and more. I think it’s emblematic of our time, because back in 2007 – I mean, dude. That’s a long time ago when we were just boys. People wanted to watch a show like “Gossip Girl” because it was aspirational. It was like an escape. It seemed like it struck a certain cultural chord because it was this aspirational fantastical vision of excess and wealth.
But now, cut to 13 years later, people are not interested in that. And I think rightfully so. Now they’re interested in deconstructing why we’re so fascinated with that in the first place. We’re interested in deconstructing those systems of privilege. I’m not saying that our television shows are doing that, but I’m saying that’s what people are more interested in, so therefore these shows reflect that.
Crawford: The curtain has sort of dropped. Back in ’07, “Gossip Girl” was edgy.
Badgley: I know, man. That’s funny because it really was. And now, I mean, I haven’t seen it in so long. It would be very interesting to watch it now. Have you seen it recently?
Crawford: Buddy, you have to strap me to a gurney and pop my eyes open like “Clockwork Orange.” But no, it would be interesting to see the first couple maybe.
Badgley: I know that I watched with my wife, with Domino [Kirke], before we got married. It must’ve been six months after we met. She had never seen it, and that’s the last time I can remember seeing an episode. I remember even then, it has nothing to do with the show, but it was very hard to watch. These snapshots of yourself when you’re 20, 21, 22 years old. Who can enjoy that? Sometimes it’s just uncomfortable.
Crawford: Yeah, of course. I don’t like really watching myself that much in general. So to go back and open that time capsule, I think there would be some nostalgic value. We’re doing that when you come to L.A. We’ll have a drink.
Badgley: A little watching party. Dude, if we live-tweet a viewing of any episode of “Gossip Girl,” people would love that.
Crawford: We didn’t have to deal with all that. Remember, ’07 was when the very first iPhone came out. I remember you got it. I remember you had it at a Halloween party. You had the first iPhone, and think about that now. I remember we were more about camera phones and this and that. There wasn’t social media.
Badgley: Blake [Lively] got me that. I literally was like, “I don’t want this thing. It’s so cumbersome, and it has all these apps on it.”
Crawford: Yeah.
Badgley: But, man, I remember even meeting a publicist that first season, and she was talking about this thing called Twitter. And as she explained Twitter, I was like, “What is this nonsense? I don’t want to have a Twitter account, and you tweet. What is this bird thing?” That’s something that actually years later, I think we got to give credit to “Gossip Girl.”
Crawford: It was ahead of its time. It really tapped into something interesting on the cusp of it all changing. I’m like, “Why would I want to put my life out there? I’m trying to crawl into my hermit shell. I’m a Cancer.” But now we’re all partaking. It’s part of the business. I should follow you.
Badgley: We should follow each other.
Crawford: What are we doing?
Badgley: We could have had Rihanna-level followers. Actually, that’s probably not true. I’ve always tried to be both transparent and forthcoming and grateful of the way “Gossip Girl” positioned me to be in a role like this and for it to have the particular effect that it has. Because it’s interesting that regardless of my performance, the fact that it’s simply me, just one of the main characters of the show called “Gossip Girl,” and I ended up being Gossip Girl — even though we can debate about whether or not that makes sense. And we can debate about whether or not Dan is even really a male lead in the show, because the heart of the show was somewhere else.
But anyway, it’s me [on “You”] playing this guy Joe, and it makes a lot of sense in a way. The funny thing is I didn’t get excited to be like, “Oh, this is such a different and interesting take on a similar vibe.” I was, if anything, too self conscious about that, and I was inclined to be like, “This is quite different.” But in a way, it’s almost like Dan, just with bloody hands.
Crawford: I hear you.
Badgley: I think what became really gratifying is as you get into it, especially I think Season 2, especially the second half — episodes seven through 10 — which I think you really start to see Joe both try to change and get worse. It gets into the psychosis of this stuff at a really detailed level. I do feel like I’ve gotten to stretch my legs.
Crawford: On the LSD trip, did you do some research? Your performance was amazing.
Badgley: In my early 20s, I did plenty of research.
Crawford: Do you have any improv?
Badgley: I think actually where I improv the most, ironically, is in the voiceover booth. I’ve developed a trust with the co-creators Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble. They really trust me to go in there.
I go in there alone, save the engineer and a co-producer, and I get almost no direction sometimes. I just go through an entire episode, and we’ve not shot it yet generally — so as it comes out of my mouth, you realize there’s something about this logic. There’s often so many different layers of a moment: he’s saying one thing to the person he’s in the scene with; he’s thinking another about them; but also, this [other] person who maybe he’s killed and they’re in the trunk of his car. Meanwhile, he’s tweeting or texting or something to cover it up, and then he’s also thinking about what he’s going to do in the next scene.
Crawford: That’s a lot. You make it so seamless you don’t realize how difficult that is to do.
Badgley: The voiceover, I feel like that’s my largest contribution to the show. It’s almost like I’m a voiceover actor first. And then, basically, the rest of the time I’m just staring.
I feel like for you, you are still just scratching the surface of your comedic breadth. I feel like the whole cast of “Gossip Girl” felt like if you could be given some leeway in your bizarre brand of humor, that it would just be such a phenomenal hit. I’m sure your co-workers on “The Boys” have seen it. But I feel like you are a comedic well just waiting to be tapped.
Crawford: I’ve finally got to let it fly. It’s been fun. I remember I did in “Gossip Girl.” I felt like our scenes in particular were the only ones I tried to work it in. I think some of the most fun moments are in the Nate and Dan scenes.
Badgley: Nate was such a tough character because you were such the straight guy. It was kind of like he was so perfect that he only had anywhere to go but down.
Crawford: Yeah, always punching his dad. Those were the good days, though. I don’t even remember what our first moment was on set. I remember the Palace hotel. It was definitely my first time experiencing New York. We got the red carpet right away.
Badgley: That was remarkable. It feels like another lifetime to me. When I think of being at the Palace, that just feels like a different person. It feels like another world, another life. It’s pretty wild.
Crawford: I’m trying to remember the name of the manager who would always take care of us. We’re sitting there in the courtyard between takes, he’d just come over and be like, “Camera love you,” and just walk away.
Badgley: He’s the one — when Blake and I went there to eat, it was probably when we were shooting there. They had a grilled cheese sandwich there called “The Gossip Girl Grilled Cheese Sandwich.” And I was like, “You should just call it ‘The Gossip Grill.'” And then, he took the menu from me and went inside, changed the name right there, printed a different menu and handed me a new menu with my suggestion. And I was like, “OK. This is a way to live.”
Crawford: The new kids won’t get that treatment [in the “Gossip Girl” reboot for HBO Max].
Badgley: Dude, I’m so interested to see what it’s like. I wish them well. I really am also interested to see how people react to it.
On the primetime soap “Gossip Girl,” Penn Badgley and Chace Crawford played two very different teen characters: Badgley’s Dan Humphrey was a member of the Brooklyn literati, while Crawford’s Nate Archibald inhabited Manhattan’s social whirl. Now, their grown-up roles subvert those images: Badgley plays a bookseller — and snobbish serial murderer — on Netflix’s “You,” while Crawford makes for a smirking, haughty superhero on Amazon’s “The Boys.” Of course, the two actors had a lot to say about “Gossip Girl” too. They talked to each other over video chat for Variety‘s Actors on Actors issue.
Chace Crawford: Penn, buddy! I checked out Season 1 of “You” a couple of years ago, but watching Season 2 last night, it was interesting to see a guy I worked with for so long on my TV screen again. But was it interesting for you — the show starting out at Lifetime having a certain trajectory, and then being moved to Netflix and being in front of 100 million people instantaneously?
More from Variety
Penn Badgley: I think when so few people were watching it on Lifetime — the network for women, of all networks — I think I was wondering about the moral ambiguity of it. I’ve been transparent about my moral conflict playing this guy. I felt much better about what we were doing once a lot of people were watching, not because I needed the gratification of a lot of viewers, but more like, it makes sense; people are responding to the way we’re coming into this conversation about the tropes of the romantic comedy, and the tropes of the romantic white male lead.
On a streaming show, you make the whole thing before anybody has seen it. Is it the same with yours?
Crawford: It was. Not only did we make the first season, it got picked up for a second season and it still hadn’t come out. It’s interesting to me, because also, man, to be honest, we move on from “Gossip Girl” to playing despicable white male privileged guys. I had the same qualms you did.
Badgley: What I really like about your character, which is for better or worse, similar to mine, is that you start out knowing carte blanche just how bad he is. And honestly, for me, not knowing the tone of the show, the first episode, it continues to unfold, like, “Oh, wait.” I honestly was so excited to see you play this dignified superhero. And then I’m like, “Oh, no. It just took such a turn.”
They’re both shows where immediately they take the trope they’re working with, in your case it’s a superhero and my case I guess it’s like the romantic male lead, and then basically within the first episode it’s bludgeoned it with a sledgehammer. It’s quite interesting to see the commentary and satire that showrunners are most interested in now, and what audiences tend to be the most interested in.
It’s like, we’ve seen the happy, sweet, saccharine stuff, and now we’re looking to deconstruct it all, because we see how it hasn’t served us maybe.
Crawford: I agree with you fully, and actually I had a question about that. I was going to ask you, do you realize how funny you are in some of the moments? He’s almost pathetic —
Badgley: Totally.
Crawford: It’s kind of this weird gray area that you don’t want to feel.
Badgley: I found your character to be far more relatable and sweet. Your guy, especially because by the end, he’s being assaulted himself, which I have to say, I was like, there’s something about a gill and her. And I’m sorry if I’m spoiling this for anybody, but it was so visceral. You couldn’t otherwise show such an intimate kind of assault if we were dealing with actual human genitalia, but the fact that it’s like this. It becomes an allegory in a way where we’re seeing her penetrate you. And it’s weird, man.
Crawford: It was tough for me to even watch, and trust me, it was not fun to shoot either, with the director right in there and giving very specific notes.
Badgley: How much of that was prosthetic? How much of it was CGI?
Crawford: They did the actual prosthetics on my skin for the first part of the scene. They had a great special effects guy replicate my entire torso down to the little chest hair. I’m laying there, and I have my own fake torso on me with the gills that have a little bit more room, and he’s behind me pumping them with these air pumps so they move, and the director is right over me. I’m like, “Guys, I’m nauseous. Can I just get out of here?”
Badgley: I had a similar thing where we had to make a prosthetic of my right arm, because I get my pinkie cut off in the second episode. That was a bit surreal.
When The Deep doesn’t want … does he have a human name?
Crawford: It’s Kevin.
Badgley: That’s funny. So when Kevin, The Deep, when this woman asks him to take off his suit — I don’t know. It was just another moment where I was surprised by the vulnerability of your character. I think my character plays at having vulnerability in a way, but probably has, well — definitely has a much deeper psychosis.
Crawford: What’s interesting about Joe — it is almost like an odd continuation of Dan.
At the end of “Gossip Girl” the show, whatever your reaction is on whether it was smart to do that or not, that he’s Gossip Girl — it didn’t really line up with the character of Dan. Right?
Badgley: Yeah.
Crawford: I just find it interesting that Joe, we kind of know who this guy is. You guys as a show really go for that. It’s interesting why people want to continue watching that and see where it goes. Is it torture porn? Is it shock value? People love it.
Badgley: It’s all of those things and more. I think it’s emblematic of our time, because back in 2007 – I mean, dude. That’s a long time ago when we were just boys. People wanted to watch a show like “Gossip Girl” because it was aspirational. It was like an escape. It seemed like it struck a certain cultural chord because it was this aspirational fantastical vision of excess and wealth.
But now, cut to 13 years later, people are not interested in that. And I think rightfully so. Now they’re interested in deconstructing why we’re so fascinated with that in the first place. We’re interested in deconstructing those systems of privilege. I’m not saying that our television shows are doing that, but I’m saying that’s what people are more interested in, so therefore these shows reflect that.
Crawford: The curtain has sort of dropped. Back in ’07, “Gossip Girl” was edgy.
Badgley: I know, man. That’s funny because it really was. And now, I mean, I haven’t seen it in so long. It would be very interesting to watch it now. Have you seen it recently?
Crawford: Buddy, you have to strap me to a gurney and pop my eyes open like “Clockwork Orange.” But no, it would be interesting to see the first couple maybe.
Badgley: I know that I watched with my wife, with Domino [Kirke], before we got married. It must’ve been six months after we met. She had never seen it, and that’s the last time I can remember seeing an episode. I remember even then, it has nothing to do with the show, but it was very hard to watch. These snapshots of yourself when you’re 20, 21, 22 years old. Who can enjoy that? Sometimes it’s just uncomfortable.
Crawford: Yeah, of course. I don’t like really watching myself that much in general. So to go back and open that time capsule, I think there would be some nostalgic value. We’re doing that when you come to L.A. We’ll have a drink.
Badgley: A little watching party. Dude, if we live-tweet a viewing of any episode of “Gossip Girl,” people would love that.
Crawford: We didn’t have to deal with all that. Remember, ’07 was when the very first iPhone came out. I remember you got it. I remember you had it at a Halloween party. You had the first iPhone, and think about that now. I remember we were more about camera phones and this and that. There wasn’t social media.
Badgley: Blake [Lively] got me that. I literally was like, “I don’t want this thing. It’s so cumbersome, and it has all these apps on it.”
Crawford: Yeah.
Badgley: But, man, I remember even meeting a publicist that first season, and she was talking about this thing called Twitter. And as she explained Twitter, I was like, “What is this nonsense? I don’t want to have a Twitter account, and you tweet. What is this bird thing?” That’s something that actually years later, I think we got to give credit to “Gossip Girl.”
Crawford: It was ahead of its time. It really tapped into something interesting on the cusp of it all changing. I’m like, “Why would I want to put my life out there? I’m trying to crawl into my hermit shell. I’m a Cancer.” But now we’re all partaking. It’s part of the business. I should follow you.
Badgley: We should follow each other.
Crawford: What are we doing?
Badgley: We could have had Rihanna-level followers. Actually, that’s probably not true. I’ve always tried to be both transparent and forthcoming and grateful of the way “Gossip Girl” positioned me to be in a role like this and for it to have the particular effect that it has. Because it’s interesting that regardless of my performance, the fact that it’s simply me, just one of the main characters of the show called “Gossip Girl,” and I ended up being Gossip Girl — even though we can debate about whether or not that makes sense. And we can debate about whether or not Dan is even really a male lead in the show, because the heart of the show was somewhere else.
But anyway, it’s me [on “You”] playing this guy Joe, and it makes a lot of sense in a way. The funny thing is I didn’t get excited to be like, “Oh, this is such a different and interesting take on a similar vibe.” I was, if anything, too self conscious about that, and I was inclined to be like, “This is quite different.” But in a way, it’s almost like Dan, just with bloody hands.
Crawford: I hear you.
Badgley: I think what became really gratifying is as you get into it, especially I think Season 2, especially the second half — episodes seven through 10 — which I think you really start to see Joe both try to change and get worse. It gets into the psychosis of this stuff at a really detailed level. I do feel like I’ve gotten to stretch my legs.
Crawford: On the LSD trip, did you do some research? Your performance was amazing.
Badgley: In my early 20s, I did plenty of research.
Crawford: Do you have any improv?
Badgley: I think actually where I improv the most, ironically, is in the voiceover booth. I’ve developed a trust with the co-creators Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble. They really trust me to go in there.
I go in there alone, save the engineer and a co-producer, and I get almost no direction sometimes. I just go through an entire episode, and we’ve not shot it yet generally — so as it comes out of my mouth, you realize there’s something about this logic. There’s often so many different layers of a moment: he’s saying one thing to the person he’s in the scene with; he’s thinking another about them; but also, this [other] person who maybe he’s killed and they’re in the trunk of his car. Meanwhile, he’s tweeting or texting or something to cover it up, and then he’s also thinking about what he’s going to do in the next scene.
Crawford: That’s a lot. You make it so seamless you don’t realize how difficult that is to do.
Badgley: The voiceover, I feel like that’s my largest contribution to the show. It’s almost like I’m a voiceover actor first. And then, basically, the rest of the time I’m just staring.
I feel like for you, you are still just scratching the surface of your comedic breadth. I feel like the whole cast of “Gossip Girl” felt like if you could be given some leeway in your bizarre brand of humor, that it would just be such a phenomenal hit. I’m sure your co-workers on “The Boys” have seen it. But I feel like you are a comedic well just waiting to be tapped.
Crawford: I’ve finally got to let it fly. It’s been fun. I remember I did in “Gossip Girl.” I felt like our scenes in particular were the only ones I tried to work it in. I think some of the most fun moments are in the Nate and Dan scenes.
Badgley: Nate was such a tough character because you were such the straight guy. It was kind of like he was so perfect that he only had anywhere to go but down.
Crawford: Yeah, always punching his dad. Those were the good days, though. I don’t even remember what our first moment was on set. I remember the Palace hotel. It was definitely my first time experiencing New York. We got the red carpet right away.
Badgley: That was remarkable. It feels like another lifetime to me. When I think of being at the Palace, that just feels like a different person. It feels like another world, another life. It’s pretty wild.
Crawford: I’m trying to remember the name of the manager who would always take care of us. We’re sitting there in the courtyard between takes, he’d just come over and be like, “Camera love you,” and just walk away.
Badgley: He’s the one — when Blake and I went there to eat, it was probably when we were shooting there. They had a grilled cheese sandwich there called “The Gossip Girl Grilled Cheese Sandwich.” And I was like, “You should just call it ‘The Gossip Grill.'” And then, he took the menu from me and went inside, changed the name right there, printed a different menu and handed me a new menu with my suggestion. And I was like, “OK. This is a way to live.”
Crawford: The new kids won’t get that treatment [in the “Gossip Girl” reboot for HBO Max].
Badgley: Dude, I’m so interested to see what it’s like. I wish them well. I really am also interested to see how people react to it.
Birthday wishes go out to Vincent D’Onofrio, Lizzy Caplan and all the other celebrities with birthdays today. Check out our slideshow below to see photos of famous people turning a year older on June 30th and learn an interesting fact about each of them.
David Alan Grier walks the red carpet before the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 4, 2019, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Gregory Payan)AP
Actor David Alan Grier turns 64
Fun fact: Graduated from Yale University
Vincent D'Onofrio, left, and Forest Whitaker attend a special screening of "Godfather of Harlem" at the Apollo Theater on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP)Greg Allen/Invision/AP
Actor Vincent D’Onofrio turns 61
Fun fact: Nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1998 for his guest role on ‘Homicide: Life on the Street’
FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2019, file photo, Mike Tyson attends a celebrity golf tournament in Dana Point, Calif. Tyson hasn’t announced any plans to return to the ring, though he did suggest on an Instagram post he might make himself available for 3 or 4-round exhibitions if the price was right. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
Boxer Mike Tyson turns 54
Fun fact: Once had a guest appearance on ‘How I Met Your Mother’
Peter Krause, right, a cast member in "Parenthood," banters with photographers as fellow cast member Monica Potter looks on at the NBC 2015 Winter TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington Hotel on Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Actress Monica Potter turns 49
Fun fact: First television appearance was in an episode of ‘The Young and the Restless’
Molly Parker arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Lost in Space" at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome on Monday, April 9, 2018. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)Invision
Actress Molly Parker turns 48
Fun fact: Plays Mrs. Robinson in the Netflix remake of ‘Lost in Space’
Lizzy Caplan attends the LA Premiere of Hulu's "Castle Rock" Season 2 on Monday, Oct. 14, 2019, in West Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
Actress Lizzy Caplan turns 38
Fun fact: First feature film role was in ‘Orange County’ in 2002
More celebrities with birthdays today
Actress Lea Massari is 87. Actress Nancy Dussault is 84. Songwriter Tony Hatch is 81. Singer Glenn Shorrock is 76. Actor Leonard Whiting is 70. Jazz musician Stanley Clarke is 69. Actor David Garrison is 68. Rock musician Hal Lindes (Dire Straits) is 67. Actress Deirdre Lovejoy is 58. Actor Rupert Graves is 57. Actor Peter Outerbridge is 54. Rock musician Tom Drummond (Better Than Ezra) is 51. Actor-comedian Tony Rock (TV: “Living Biblically”) is 51. Actor Brian Bloom is 50. Actor Brian Vincent is 50. Actor Rick Gonzalez is 41. Actor Tom Burke is 39. Actress Susannah Flood is 38. Rock musician James Adam Shelley (American Authors) is 37. Country singer Cole Swindell is 37. Rhythm and blues singer Fantasia is 36. Actor Sean Marquette (TV: “The Goldbergs”) is 32.
Other popular or historical birthdays on June 30th
Ed Yost, inventor of modern hot air balloon
Harry Blackstone Jr., magician
Robert Ballard, discovered Titanic wreck site (78)
"celebrities" - Google News
June 30, 2020 at 05:39PM
https://ift.tt/38bNlCX
Today’s famous birthdays list for June 30, 2020 includes celebrities Vincent D’Onofrio, Lizzy Caplan - cleveland.com
"celebrities" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bWxE3n
https://ift.tt/3c1BIiT
