Gossip Girl Producer Says He Has One Major Regret About the Show
[MUSIC] I'm Penn Badgley, and I'm here at the inStyle photo shoot. I think sexiness is completely different from being aesthetically good looking, like being beautiful. [MUSIC] Sexy is like, come on stares and attitude. [MUSIC] Playing music actually for me, is the right kind of music. It's probably among the times when I feel sexiest. The music that I play and write is, is, is soulful. Or as I like to think it is it's sultry, slow most of the time. Soulful hip hop, like common. A lot, a lot of his beats are very jazzy. I think that music is very sexy. [MUSIC] Playing sports, you know you feel sound in your body, and that's it helps you feel sexy. Being active, I think, like I said, it's not, it's not like explicitly sexy. It's not like when I play sports, I'm thinking about sex. I think maybe after sports, when the cheerleaders are around. [LAUGH] Maybe. That's that's when it's sexy. [MUSIC] I just recently went to Europe for the first time, and I'd say Paris is kind of sexy. Paris is beautiful place in the first place. New York is a sexy place. You can make any place sexy, really. Chocolate covered strawberries. There's something sexy about it. You watch a, a, a beautiful woman. You get chocolate covered strawberry. I think that's very sexy. The way that a woman wears her clothing, and, and jewelry or, or doesn't wear it. I don't think I've ever said sexy so many times in one [LAUGH] in like a 5 minute period. [BLANK_AUDIO]
If the 10-year anniversary of Gossip Girl's premiere has brought up all sorts of feelings you thought you left buried on the Upper East Side, you're not alone. From fashion trends (we're looking at you Serena and Blair) to provocative sex, there's no denying that the CW's hit series pushed the envelope in ways that shaped a generation. But looking back now, one of the show's executive producers says he wishes they had used their platform to highlight more diversity.
In an interview with Vulture, Josh Safran revealed that he regrets that the iconic show wasn't more inclusive. "When I look back on Gossip Girl, the only things I regret were not as much representation for people of color and gay story lines," he explained, adding that those are "two things they probably could have delved into more deeply."
He certainly has a point. Its six main characters—Serena, Blair, Nate, Chuck, Dan, and Jenny—were all played by white actors, and their predominately-heterosexual romantic story lines largely missed opportunities to explore larger LGBTQ issues.
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But that was then and this is now, and hopefully Safran's words will inspire more networks to expand their inclusivity.
