Penn Badgley just gave fans a fun dose of TV nostalgia — with a twist of eerie coincidence. While walking viewers through the set of his Netflix thriller You in a video tour for Architectural Digest, the 38-year-old actor dropped a surprising behind-the-scenes gem: the very same stages used for his current show were once home to Gossip Girl.
“A little bit of an interesting note… this is where we shot Gossip Girl,” Badgley reveals, while standing in the creepy basement where his You character, Joe Goldberg, keeps his victims in a see-through cage.
Yep, the same soundstage that now screams psychological horror used to echo with the dramatic lives of Upper East Side teens.
He went on to point out, “This is the same stage where the Waldorf suites or whatever, where they live, it was in this stage,” referring to the glam Manhattan pad where Blair Waldorf (played by Leighton Meester) lived.
But that’s not all — the location gets even more personal.
“The stage with the bookstore was where the Humphrey loft was,” Badgley adds, connecting the dots between Joe Goldberg’s bookish haunt and Dan Humphrey’s humble Brooklyn roots.
For long-time fans, it’s a full-circle moment, Dan’s once-comfy family space is now Joe’s twisted hunting ground.
Reflecting on the familiarity of the place, Badgley mused, “I was just standing outside looking at the trees and I thought, ‘I’ve been looking at these trees for nearly 20 years now.’ And I thought to myself, ‘Have they grown? Do trees in the city, over the course of 20 years, do they grow?’ They must.”
He followed it up with a grin and the perfectly quirky comment, “So that’s just a little window into my brain.”
