Penn Badgley on his Zoe Kravitz romance: Real, true, earth-shattering love
Here are some photos of Penn Badgley at the Tribeca Film Festival two days ago. I skimmed these pics yesterday to see if Penn’s girlfriend Zoe Kravitz was there, but she was not (boo). Just so you know, I’m not expecting many people to be interested in it, but I love this story. Penn was at Tribeca with Imogen Poots, because they costar in the soon-to-be-released Greetings From Tim Buckley. This is not the long-awaited, long-gestating Jeff Buckley bio-pic (which is currently be called Mystery White Boy), but Penn IS playing the late Jeff Buckley. This film is about Jeff Buckley’s debut as an artist. Unfortunately, Greetings From Tim Buckley will not feature any songs by Jeff Buckley (the film didn’t get permission from his estate).
I’ll admit, I don’t really think much of Penn. I never watched Gossip Girl, so at least I don’t have THAT image of him. The only thing I’ve seen him in was Easy A, where he was surprisingly hot and he has a really nice voice. Once he got with Zoe Kravitz, I’ll admit that I gave him a second look. Zoe rebounded onto to Penn right after (or perhaps overlapping with) Michael Fassbender. At first I thought… “Girl, you go from Fassbender to a Gossip Girl?” But Penn and Zoe kind of work, and she ended up giving him a surprising amount of street-cred. Plus, I like how they’re not shoving their love in our faces. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised when Penn opened up about Zoe in a recent interview with Movieline – you can read the full piece here, and here’s the part about Zoe:
Movieline: The first time you and I talked, you said that falling in love with Zoe Kravitz at the time you were playing Buckley helped you really put yourself out there for the part. How so?
Penn: At that time I was falling madly in love in a way that was changing me and opening me up. And it was an integral part of playing Jeff. Technically, I could probably play guitar and sing better now because I have a year of consistent experience under my belt, but, at the time, I was kind of going through what Jeff was going through emotionally in the movie in the sense that the worlds of music and love and women and art were opening up to me. Honestly I needed it. It was like this cosmic intervention where, if you’re going to play somebody like Jeff you’ve got to at least be in love, you know?
The universe answered you.
Yeah, very much. And being in love, real, true, earth-shattering love – even though it sounds hyperbolic I really was going through it — helped me be as good as I could be.
I suspect this role will lead to more film offers for you. After so many years in television, are you now concentrating on movie roles?
For me, this movie is a beautiful step forward. Gossip Girl has given me everything that I have now. It gave me the opportunity to live in New York and to be in a position to get this role. It also put me in New York City so I could meet Zoe. And it’s put me in a place where I haven’t had to do a bunch of other shit just to make money. I’m super grateful for it, but this movie has come at the right time to take a step forward. I have been working in television for 13 years now, and you know, I’m just done with it. I have nothing against television, but I’m done.
Um, how cute is he? This is how dudes should always talk about their girlfriends!!! I’ll admit that I’m crushing on him a little bit – Penn’s not lamenting all of the tail he’s missing or he’s not on some kind of “I won’t talk about that!” power-trip. He talks about how she’s changed him for the better and how much he loves her… sigh. Now I don’t want them to ever split up.
Hey, remember when he was with Blake Lively and it seemed like she was always fooling around? Yeah. This is so much better. I would love it if Penn had a big breakout.
Zoe and Penn in 2012
Photos courtesy of WENN, FameFlynet
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