Penn Badgley & Chace Crawford Compare Filming 'Gossip Girl' in NYC to Being 'Mickey Mouse in Disneyland'

“There were definitely a lot of negatives and positives, but … I mean, it was just such a wild time. It was so novel as well,” Chace said of filming in NYC.

“New York City, I have such this romanticized love for — I still do — I’m still in love with that city because of it,” Chace continued. “But we were given the keys to the city at a crazy time, a lot of partying and you know, and access to different things that you can sort of get caught up in.”

He added, “That was, at the same time, okay in your early 20s and a lot of fun, but you are kind of like Mickey Mouse to Disneyland, you know, people see you and you’re, like, this character in this city.”

Penn responded with a laugh, before adding, “That’s a funny metaphor. You are like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, which is to say you’re a faceless person inside of a suit who cannot be seen or heard, who everybody’s taking pictures with.”

The former co-stars then admitted that he found being a celebrity in NYC to be a bit unsettling at times.

“I’m a little bit more on the private side. I mean, I’m extroverted, but it created a little bit of paranoia,” Chace explained. “I don’t know about you, Penn. I feel [from the] outside looking in, I feel like you dealt with it amazingly, but I definitely had gotten a weird paranoia.”

According to Penn, his social life wasn’t as exciting and active at the time as Chace‘s was.

“I think on the inside we had a lot of the same experiences and then maybe in some of the most superficial ways, we had slightly different experiences,” Penn said. “That whole keys to the city thing, I felt like — it’s so silly because I’m not, it’s not a sensitive topic, but at the time it was — I did not feel, I still felt like I didn’t know how to get into the club … literally the clubs.”

Penn added, “I didn’t go out as much as the rest of the crew and I often felt uncomfortable because I didn’t feel like I was as easily able to get in.”

Find out which other Gossip Girl star appeared on the first episode of Penn‘s podcast!