Chace Crawford Shares How Gossip Girl Made Him Feel Like a "Pretty Boy"

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Zoolander famously remarked, ‘I’m quite certain that life has more to offer than just being exceptionally handsome. I intend to discover exactly what that is.’

Chace Crawford has been in search of what that is since he broke out of the ‘pretty boy jail’ he felt trapped in during and after Gossip Girl.

He played Nate Archibald in the early 2000s TV drama and said the success of the show became both a career-defining moment and a creative obstacle.

‘I felt like I was in the wilderness for years after Gossip Girl,’ Crawford, 39, confessed on a recent episode of the Good Guys podcast.

‘Because I felt, you know, as big of a show as it was, coming off of it as a young guy, it’s like, “Oh, that’s not cool anymore.”

He continues, ‘I feel like I’ve been typecast, trapped in the role of the CW’s handsome leading man. People underestimate my versatility.’

Zoolander once said, ‘I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is.’ Chace seen here March 12, 2022

Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford and Penn Badgley arrive at Gossip Girl premiere party on September 18, 2007 in New York City

Crawford found success after Gossip Girl, but he shared that it was far from easy.

‘I think people think… actors make a ton more money and have way more agency than we actually do,’ he said.

However, the truth, according to Crawford, was far more frustrating.

Hollywood refused to see him as anything more than a pretty boy and romantic lead.

‘I was probably harder on myself than I needed to be,’ he reflected.

Crawford was ready to dig his teeth into darker, grittier roles and that finally happened when he was cast in Amazon Prime’s The Boys.

The Boys is a superhero satire where Chace plays an insecure and self-absorbed anti-hero named The Deep.

‘I just remember that audition hitting my inbox, and reading the synopsis, I was like, that sounds wild,’ he recalled.

Chace Crawford has been in search of what that is since he broke out of the ‘pretty boy jail’ he felt he was in during and after Gossip Girl. Seen here in 2009

He played Nate Archibald in the early-2000s TV drama and said the success of the show became both a career-defining moment and a creative obstacle. Seen here in 2009

‘I felt like I was in the wilderness for years after Gossip Girl,’ Crawford, 39, confessed on a recent episode of the Good Guys podcast. Seen here May 18, 2025

‘Because I felt, you know, as big of a show as it was, coming off of it as a young guy, it’s like, “Oh, that’s not cool anymore.”‘ Seen here in 2007

‘And then reading this pilot, I was like, “Oh, this is f****ing great. This is so out there and original and weird.”‘

He connected with the character instantly. ‘I know that guy,’ he said.

‘You know, I know a hundred of those guys, basically. So, I instantly felt confident and excited about my take on the character.’

And then he went in to read for it and saw 50 other names on the call sheet, which deflated his confidence as he felt the casting directors probably had already cast the role with an earlier audition.

The showrunner (who is also the series creator) was at every audition and that’s when Chace realized he could do it.

He did one dark scene and one funnier one that got some laughs out of the showrunner.

He booked the role and was over the moon about it.

‘It was great. I was so happy to have another job that I was excited about and that the character was so different from anything that I had done before,’ he added noting that he’d finally broken out of the ‘pretty boy’ box that Gossip Girl put him in.

‘And I’m in this box now. I’m in this jail of like the CW pretty boy, you know what I mean?’ he adds, noting that people didn’t think he had any ‘range.’ Seen here January 8, 2024