Andrew Eccles / The CWAttention, Gossip Girl fans: Penn Badgley and Chace Crawford just had a virtual reunion.
Eight years after the beloved CW show went off the air, stars Badgley and Crawford are reflecting on the show that thrust them into stardom. During a recent chat for Variety's Actors on Actors series, the former co-stars revealed the last time they watched Gossip Girl.
"I haven't seen it in so long. It would be very interesting to watch it now," Badgley, who now stars on Netflix's You, shared. "Have you seen it recently?"
Crawford, who now stars on Amazon Prime's The Boys, told Badgley, "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 went on to reveal that he watched it with his now wife Domino Kirke before they got married in 2017.
"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," the 33-year-old 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."
Gossip Girl, which premiered in 2007, made headlines over its six seasons due to many of the storylines.
Looking back on what viewers wanted then compared to today, Badgley shared, "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," he continued. "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 added, "The curtain has sort of dropped. Back in '07, Gossip Girl was edgy."
That same year, Badgley received a gift from his co-star and then-girlfriend, Blake Lively, that he didn't exactly want.
As Crawford recalled, "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 went on to tell Crawford, "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.'"
To get more scoop from Badgley and Crawford, head on over to Variety!