From Dan and Serena’s break-up to Chuck’s hot pursuit of Blair to Nate’s cougar woes, the guys of “Gossip Girl” haven’t had it easy on the CW show’s second season — but the actors who play them tell Details magazine that being real-life stars is going a little better.
“To do what we do? Sometimes I feel like we’re cheating the rest of the world,” Penn Badgley, who plays Dan, told the mag for their November issue.
While Dan and Serena have split on screen, Badgley calls his relationship with girlfriend Blake Lively “wonderful,” though that’s all he gave away.
“You have to draw the line somewhere,” he said.
Ed Westwick, who plays the manipulative, wounded Chuck Bass, is a more open sort.
“I’ve never had a problem making friends,” he said. “Put me in a bar and I’ll make friends straightaway. And I’m at my most impressionable age. I need to meet new people, and soak up everything like a sponge.”
While Chuck has been as venomous as ever in season 2, Westwick says he’s just misunderstood.
“It’s not like Chuck is stickin’ a knife to a granny’s throat,” Westwick said. “He’s just mischievous. In the second season, you will see him do more of the good-guy thing.”
They may see the opposite from Chace Crawford’s Nate.
“I’m hoping for a fall from grace for Nate. Five years from now, I better have murdered someone!” Crawford said.
But Nate’s had his hands full fending off cougar claws this season, as he continues to chase Brooklyn-bred Vanessa. A former Abercrombie & Fitch model and the least experienced member of the cast, Crawford was “super-nervous” about signing on to “Gossip Girl.”
“Model turned actor, dime a dozen, eye candy, doesn’t know what he’s doing… and Perez Hilton says I have ‘gayface,’” Crawford said of the criticisms that have come his way. “So on top of everything else, I have to overcome gayface.”
Even Badgley couldn’t help but notice his co-star’s model looks.
“It’s like he was genetically bred to be a teen star,” Badgley said.
Still, Badgley admitted, the twenty-something actors are all getting a little long in the tooth to play high school seniors — even though they’re reportedly under contract for another six seasons. For the “Gossip” guys, things could be a lot worse.
“We all look way too old,” Badgley said. “But if we looked the right ages, some of the scandalous s--- we do on the show would be too much.”