The CW teen drama Gossip Girl won the hearts of young adults across the nation when it premiered in 2007.
It made stars out of its stunning cast, which included Blake Lively — who is now embroiled in a legal battle with Justin Baldoni — Chace Crawford, Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick, Taylor Momsen, and Leighton Meester.
Now, the 39-year-old Chace is admitting that he’s scared to sit down for a rewatch of the original Gossip Girl.
‘I haven’t really rewatched any of it,’ he told People. ‘I’d be terrified. It’s a bit embarrassing.’
While promoting his fashion line American Dream Clubhouse, he revealed that he worried digging into the show would dredge up bad memories of how he once dealt poorly with fame.
‘As a young man, you take yourself too seriously. I think everything’s so precious, and you want to be this Marlon Brando,’ Chace explained. ‘And I think there gets a point too in a show that’s popular where you get your sense of identity and who you are kind of becomes wrapped up in not just that character or the character’s popularity, but the show.’
Crawford reflected about rising to fame, ‘Some actor quoted like, “Anyone who gets famous is an a**hole for two years in their own way.” It can affect people in a really weird way. And it probably made me a bit more paranoid at the time.’
The actor also acknowledged the continued cultural relevance of Gossip Girl, which spawned a short-lived reboot in 2021.
‘In a way it’s kind of become almost classic. It really was of its time, though. It was just before social media, a little bit ahead of its time in that regard.
‘But in watching, it’s very campy. I forget how kind of campy it was. It’s kind of fun in that way,’ he told the outlet.
Chace explained, ‘It’s the music too. Before it aired, they gave me a copy of the pilot to my parents, and my mom and dad probably watched it 20 times. Those songs from the pilot are so ingrained.’
Asked what wisdom he would share with his younger self, the star said: ‘I would just kind of tell myself to have fun, relax, everything’s going to be OK, and it’s just not holding on too tightly to your career or what you want to do and just have fun with it because you can kind of take yourself [too] seriously.’
Crawford’s former Gossip Girl costar Blake Lively is currently wrapped up in a nasty court battle with her It Ends With Us costar and director Justin Baldoni.
The two butted heads while filming the romantic drama last year, and things turned litigious in December when the actress sued the actor for alleged sexual harassment and engineering a retaliatory smear campaign.
This week Lively suffered a setback in the case when a New York judge denied her attorneys’ application for a protective order seeking to block her text messages with Taylor Swift from being entered as evidence.
Baldoni’s team has subpoenaed Lively for text messages, emails and any other messages between herself and the singer.
The Jane The Virgin actor’s lawyers will now be allowed to pore through the text trail, with all communications related to It Ends With Us set for scrutiny.
Last December, Blake outlined work opportunities that she allegedly missed due to Baldoni in her explosive lawsuit against him.
One of the missed work gigs listed was hosting the season 50 premiere of Saturday Night Live in September, which aired the month after the film was released.
‘The effects on Ms. Lively’s professional life were immediate and substantial,’ said the suit.
‘Given the ongoing nature of the campaign and the associated negative public sentiment, Ms. Lively did not believe she could proceed with public appearances or events without being forced to openly discuss what happened on set,’ the filing stated.
