Photo:
Architectural Digest/Youtube
- Penn Badgley gave a video tour of the sets on You following the Netflix series’ fifth and final season
- During the video, the actor reveals that his character Joe Goldberg’s infamous cage room was previously Blair Waldorf’s lavish penthouse on Gossip Girl
- Badgley starred on the CW teen drama from 2007 to 2012 before You premiered in 2018
Penn Badgley is letting Gossip Girl fans in on a little secret!
While giving a tour of the spaces seen in the hit Netflix show You, Badgley revealed to Architectural Digest that Gossip Girl was once filmed on the same exact stages more than a decade ago. He shares the fun tidbit while showing off the eerie basement where his character, serial murderer Joe Goldberg, holds his victims captive in a transparent cage.
“A little bit of an interesting note… this is where we shot Gossip Girl,” Badgley, 38, says in the April 28 video tour. The actor played Dan Humphrey on the fan-favorite CW series when it aired from 2007 to 2012.
“This is the same stage where the Waldorf suites or whatever, where they live, it was in this stage,” he continues, referring to the lavish Manhattan penthouse where Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) lived in the show.
Blair Waldorf at the Waldorf family’s penthouse in ‘Gossip Girl’. The CW
He then explains that Mooney’s Bookstore, where his You character Joe Goldberg works, used to be Dan Humprey’s loft where he lived with his dad Rufus (Matthew Settle) and sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen).
“The stage with the bookstore was where the Humphrey loft was,” he says, before adding, “so this place is extremely familiar to me.”
Blair Waldorf as Leighton Meester and Penn Badgley as Dan Humphrey in the Humphrey loft. The CW
Badgley continues, “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 adds with a smile, “So that’s just a little window into my brain.”
Mooney’s basement where Joe Goldberg kept his victims in a cage. Courtesy of Netflix
The actor, who spent the majority of his 20s playing Dan Humprey, recently opened up to PEOPLE about how Joe Goldberg became a significant part of his 30s.
“I think I will miss him a little bit. He’s been a profound experience for me,” Badgley told PEOPLE of his character Joe. “He’s not a real person. So what have I been doing? I’ve been engaging in this long [journey] my entire 30s.”
“I was 30 when I took the role. I’m going to be 39 this year. Even though the show, the way it came out, it’s actually been closer to seven years. For me, it’s like my 30s,” he continues.
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Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in ‘You’. Courtesy of Netflix
“I became a father while I was on this show. I only got married just before I took the role. So I’ve grown a lot and I’ve grown with Joe in a strange way,” he adds, referring to his pregnant wife Domino Kirke and their 4-year-old son.
The John Tucker Must Die star also noted that Joe “taught me a lot about what it is to be a man by knowing what it is not. And I don’t mean the obvious things like, ‘Oh, don’t murder. That’s bad.’ That’s very clear.”
You’s fifth and final season premiered on Thursday, April 24, marking the official end of the psychological-thriller that fans have been following for the last seven years. The new season stars Charlotte Ritchie alongside Badgley, as well as new additions Madeline Brewer, Anna Camp and Griffin Matthews.
