‘You’ actor Penn Badgley remembers “joyous” late ‘Gossip Girl’ co-star Michelle Trachtenberg

Penn Badgley has remembered his late Gossip Girl co-star Michelle Trachtenberg.

Trachtenberg died on February 26 at the age of 39. The actor died a natural death stemming from diabetes complications. It was previously speculated that her death was due to complications from a rejected liver transplant.

Speaking to E! News at the season five premiere of Netflix‘s You, Badgley was asked about Trachtenberg, with whom he starred in Gossip Girl between 2008 and 2012. Badgley said when asked about the late actress: “What I remember of her is she was incredibly quick to laugh.”

He continued: “She was really joyous. We all have our ups and downs, our lights and shadows, but she had this — I mean, she was mature, but she had this childlike, joyous laugh. She had a really pure heart, it’s surreal.”

Badgley went on to disclaim that he hadn’t seen her in over a decade: “I can’t claim to have known her well, but yeah, really sad. Really surreal.”

Trachtenberg gained her major breakthrough as a teenager as Dawn Summers, the younger sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy in the cult WB series Buffy The Vampire Slayer. She joined in season five in 2000 and remained on the show until its conclusion with season seven in 2003, with the role earning her a Teen Choice Award nomination in 2001.

She found another wave of adoration later in the 2010s when she portrayed Georgina Sparks on The CW’s teen drama Gossip Girl. Her character was a former friend of Blake Lively’s Serena van der Woodsen and a scheming Manhattan socialite who would routinely find herself clashing with Serena and Leighton Meester’s Blair Waldorf.

Her early TV credits included Nickelodeon’s The Adventures Of Pete & Pete and the lead role in the 1996 film Harriet The Spy, the adaptation of the beloved coming-of-age comedy novel. She went on to star in projects such as 2004’s acclaimed coming-of-age teen drama film Mysterious Skin alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the raunchy sex comedy EuroTrip that same year, the 2005 Disney film Ice Princess and the 2009 teen fantasy 17 Again, alongside Zac Efron and the late Matthew Perry.

In more recent years, she made appearances on major TV series including House, NCIS: Los Angeles and Weeds. She also made a notable appearance in the music video for Fall Out Boy’s ‘This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race’ in 2006 and revived her role as Georgina Sparks in the 2022 reboot of Gossip Girl.

Following the news of Trachtenberg’s death, Rosie O’Donnell paid tribute to her late Harriet The Spy co-star: “I loved her very much. She struggled the last few years. I wish I could have helped”.

Trachtenberg’s Buffy co-star James Marsters also paid tribute: “My heart is heavy today. We have lost a beautiful soul. Michelle was fiercely intelligent, howlingly funny, and a very talented person. She died much too young, and leaves behind scores of people who knew and loved her”.

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