New York Itinerary: Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley

As Dan Humphrey, Gossip Girl’s loveable leading man, Penn Badgley traipses through New York with a coterie of privileged prep-school coeds. But when the cameras aren’t rolling, the laid-back actor, star of this month’s thriller The Stepfather, prefers tacos and street trucks to STK.

“It’s fucking weird,” says actor Penn Badgley of the frenzy his hit television series Gossip Girl has brought to Manhattan, inspiring gaggles of schoolgirls to camp out on set and city tours of locations frequented by the show’s fictional Manhattan scenesters. “I’ll be the first to admit that New York is one of the greatest cities in the world,” he says. “But what you see on screen is not the life we really lead.” Still, there are parallels: Badgley dates Blake Lively, who plays his on-screen love interest, Serena; he’s regularly terrorized by camera-wielding tweens with Twitter access; and Penn also enjoys the perks of celebrity. “When people lament fame,” he says, “it’s like boo-fucking-hoo. It’s amazing to have so many privileges.” Even with the imminent release of two big-screen projects—this month’s psychological thriller The Stepfather, opposite Dylan Walsh and Amber Heard, and the high school comedy Easy A—Badgley keeps his rising star in check. “People take themselves so seriously in this city and this industry,” he says, “But success is a slippery fish—you can’t hold onto it.”

House of Oldies
35 Carmine Street
This must be the last place in the country, if not the world, that only sells records. There’s a lot of ego at most places that sell good vinyl, but the guy here is really nice—he’s just an old dude who wants people to have a great record collection. I love music, soul specifically, and the way that jazz lends itself to soul and the way soul lends itself to hip-hop. You can find soul in any genre. I just started listening to Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest and—as indie as they
are—even they are inspired by soul.

Mud Truck
Astor Place
I take my coffee black. Every once in a while, I’ll have a soy latte, which I’ve gotten inexplicably hooked on. I like getting my coffee from a truck because, when filming on set, that’s what I’ve become used to. Not that I’m obsessed with food trucks. Indian cuisine is my favorite kind of food, but I couldn’t really see myself being drawn to an Indian street truck.