Penn Badgley Says He’s “Literally Been Molested” By Fans Of ‘Gossip Girl’

While promoting his new Lifetime drama You which focuses on stalkers, Penn Badgley opened up about receiving unwanted advances from fans during his time on teen series Gossip Girl.

“I think as an actor you can become an object of desire, which is something women are already accustomed to more or less around the world,” the 31-year-old told the The Daily Beast.

“I mean, I don’t want to sound sensationalist, but I’ve literally been molested — just in the literal sense of the word — by many people in the moment. Because that’s what they do.”

Badgley made sure not to compare his experience with that of the #MeToo movement, however he says that Terry Crews’ story inspired him to come forward.

“You’re led as a man, particularly, that when it happens you should feel great about it,” Badgley said. “Particularly when it comes from someone who’s feasibly an object of your desire as well.”

He goes on to say that he hopes You will start “necessary conversations”, “I think it’s significant that a show like this is coming out now.”

He went on to clarify his comments in a statement to PEOPLE.

“The point of my comment was not to confess a personal trauma,” he says. “I was speaking about the way emotional and physical boundaries are violated for someone in the public eye, who is seen as an object of desire.”

“Depending on so many factors, it can range from conscious abuse to something very unconscious — and that is the point I was making, cautiously, in the context of a conversation about fanaticism and cultural norms which support manipulative or abusive behaviour. These are the same norms which support predatory men, but not exclusively predatory men,” he continued. “They affect, and infect, us all.”

Badgley played Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl from 2007 to 2012 alongside Blake Lively (Serena van der Woodsen), Leighton Meester (Blair Waldorf), Chace Crawford (Nate Archibald) and Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass).

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