- Penn Badgley spoke about his time on "Gossip Girl" and his relationship with costar Blake Lively.
- He said there was a "dark undercurrent" of the experience, but he "never" struggled with substance abuse.
Penn Badgley reflected on his time spent working on the hit show "Gossip Girl" and how his relationship with costar Blake Lively "saved him" at the time.
In a new cover story for Variety released on Wednesday, the "You" star spoke briefly about his romance with Lively.
Badgley and Lively met playing on-again, off-again love interests named Dan Humphrey and Serena van der Woodsen (who ultimately ended up together) on The CW's soapy drama series "Gossip Girl," which lasted for six seasons between 2007 and 2012.
The actors dated during the early seasons, from 2007 to 2010.
Badgley described the experience of starring on "Gossip Girl" as two-fold. He called it "fun and fast-paced," but on the other hand, there was a "dark undercurrent that would bottom out in my later 20s."
When asked if he was referencing struggles with substance abuse, Badgley said, "To be honest, I never struggled with substance."
"Blake didn't drink, and I think our relationship in some ways saved me from forcing myself to go down that road," he added."
Badgley and Lively have opened up about their past relationship in several interviews since their breakup.
"I remember there was one point where we were just afraid of how our personal lives overlapping our work life could be perceived by our bosses," Lively said in a 2017 feature for Vanity Fair timed to the 10th anniversary of the "Gossip Girl" premiere. "[But then] we were like, 'Oh no, that's exactly what they want.' They wanted us all to date. They wanted us all to wear the same clothes that we're wearing on the show. They wanted that, because then it fed their whole narrative. People could buy into this world."
Executive producer Joshua Safran, who went on to develop a "Gossip Girl" continuation series for HBO Max, said that Badgley and Lively were so low-key about their breakup that he didn't find out until months after the split.
"I don't even know how they did it," he said. "They kept it from everybody which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their personal drama to relate to the show."
In a 2013 interview with Elle, published a year after Lively married Ryan Reynolds, Badgley spoke about what he learned from the breakup.
"I don't know if I can distill it into a sentence, or even articulate it," he said. "We were very much caught up in the show, which itself was a six-year endurance test. Our relationship was a part of that and helped us through it. I mean, like anything valuable, it was good and it was bad and it was a learning experience."
During an appearance on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live" in 2015, Badgley named Lively as both his best and worst on-screen kiss.
"I'll say Blake because we actually had a relationship at the time," he said of his best on-screen kiss. "And worst? Maybe Blake after we broke up."
Badgley also credited them with being "consummately professional" after their breakup.
"I think we should both pat ourselves on the back for getting through it, because anything is complicated in that way, and we handled it," he said.