Penn Badgley and Leighton Meester Almost Forgot They Met Years Before Gossip Girl

Before Blair and Lonelyboy, before Constance Billard took over the storied Met Steps, and way, way before the HBO Max reboot of Gossip Girl, Penn Badgley and Leighton Meester were just two up-and-comers taking whatever roles they could get — and if they had their way, some of those would be better off forgotten.

Years after hanging up their school uniforms, Badgley invited Meester to talk about Gossip Girl and their first meeting, which was surprisingly not on the set of the now-iconic CW soap, in the inaugural episode of his newly-launched podcast. Podcrushed, which debuts on May 18, sees Badgley joined by co-hosts Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari as they talk about "the awkwardness, anxiety, heartbreak, and self-discovery that defines adolescence," Entertainment Weekly reports.

In the first episode, Meester makes a guest appearance to reminisce about the bad B-grade horror film where she first met Badgley.

"I don't think about it hardly ever," Badgley said of the film, "but then I'm like, oh, Hella-Burger! Well, actually, it's called Drive Thru."

"I was wondering which title you were gonna shout," Meester added. "I'm really glad that was the one."

Meester goes on to say that she's never actually watched the film, which came out in 2007, but Badgley admits that he's seen clips of it, including one involving his untimely death.

"I'm cut in the middle, in half," Badgley said. "I'm cut in fully half. And then my body, my torso slides off of my legs."

Luckily, someone has graced YouTube with a compilation of Badgley and Meester's scenes for fans wondering exactly what goes down in the film.

After the movie wrapped, Meester says that she hosted a party at her home — something Badgley remembers, even though Meester says she doesn't recall him even being there. It's one more piece of evidence that proves the podcast's theory that Badgley was "not memorable to Leighton at all" on and off the set. If this throwback is any indication, Badgley really was born to play LonelyBoy, after all, and the Upper East Side's Queen B was perfectly cast, too.

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