Gossip Girl , John Tucker Must Die , and Easy A star, and lead singer of MOTHXR, Penn Badgley, has become such a huge name in Hollywood ever since he took on the role of Joe Goldberg in the Netflix original series, You .
But there is still so much about him that fans don’t know!
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1. He graduated high school when he was 13 years old.
“I graduated when I was 13,” he told Mirror .
“It was really just to avoid the on-set tutor thing. I was taking community college courses when I wasn’t working so I’d spend six months working and six months going to school, on and off.”
2. Initially, he didn’t want to play Joe in *You*.
“I didn’t want to do it — it was too much. I was conflicted with the nature of the role,” he told Entertainment Weekly .
“To be honest, in the beginning of the process, I had no interest in humanizing [Joe]. Like, please, spare us. But then I realized the only thing you can do as an actor is bring a character to life, and all that means.”
3. He turned down his role in *Gossip Girl* twice.
In an interview with Vulture , he revealed that despite being personally invited to join the cast of Gossip Girl by the show’s creator, he turned it down twice because he felt like he had been in too many teen-drama-esque films.
He finally accepted the role of Dan when he realized if he wanted to make any money it was either going to be that or waiting tables.
4. He thinks his *Gossip Girl* character, Dan, and his “You” character, Joe, are very similar.
There’s no denying that there are some obvious parallels between Dan and Joe. But it’s interesting that Penn knows it too!
“It’s the same role. But now he has blood dripping down his face,” he told The New Yorker .
5. He hates that fans have sexualized and romanticized his character in *You*.
Penn has repeatedly confronted fans via Twitter for condoning Joe Goldberg’s behavior and even romanticizing it.
He wants fans to know that Joe isn’t supposed to be a likable character , “he’s a murderer.”
6. A typical date-night for him and his wife, Domino, is eating at an Italian restaurant in New York City.
In an interview with InStyle , Penn noted that an average date for him and his wife is usually going out for a bowl of pasta .
Simple, yet elegant!
7. He didn’t like how he was perceived after *Gossip Girl*.
“Up until this role, everybody thought I was such a nice guy. And it’s great to be a nice guy, but the kind of nice guy that makes ‘nice guy’ an insult—that’s actually not a nice guy. I think that’s what frustrated me. Lo and behold, I play somebody who’s not a nice guy, and that everybody loves. We don’t like Dan Humphrey. We like Chuck Bass. We like Joe Goldberg. So in a sense, what do you expect?,” he told GQ .
8. Before starring in Jeff Buckley’s biopic, none of his friends knew that he could sing.
In an interview with Vulture , Penn revealed that he has always been able to sing quite well, but he’s never used it as a party trick.
Up until the film’s release, none of his friends knew he could sing at all, let alone exactly like Jeff Buckley.
9. After his parents divorce, he stopped believing in marriage for a while.
“I think every person’s parents teach them a lot and also mess them up royally. I think their separation probably split me down the middle, 50/50. For a while I didn’t believe in marriage. But I think I do believe in having a love. I’m not saying only one love ever, but in having a good, solid relationship. I think that’s possible,” he told Elle .
10. He said that he’s written a song for every woman he has ever dated.
In an interview with Elle , while he was dating Zoë Kravitz, he admitted that he had written a song for her and every other woman he had ever dated up until then.
11. He once dated his *Gossip Girl* co-star, Blake Lively.
While he is now married to musician, Domino Kirke, back in his Gossip Girl era, he briefly dated his former co-star, Blake Lively.
The pair dated for nearly three years and no one on set knew about it!
12. He is a self-taught musician.
“I started playing music. For the first time ever, I haven’t had anything to do, so I’m trying to be creative in really simple, quiet ways. Whether or not it will turn into anything, we’ll see,” he told Rolling Stone at the time.
Nowadays, he is the frontman of a band!
13. His favorite album is “Voodoo” by D’Angelo.
“Time and time again, I return to D’Angelo and his moving, soulful album, “Voodoo.” The instrumentation is deep. That is music that I found when I was 12, and it has grown with me, gotten me through good times and bad,” he told Yahoo Entertainment .
“I understand him as an artist,” he added.
“Similarly, I will say that part of this role and the entire experience that made it so moving was that Jeff was an artist I felt keyed into in the same way .
