Chace Crawford Says Dating Scene on the ‘Gossip Girl’ Set Was a ‘College-Like Experience’

Chace Crawford has opened up about the dating scene on the set of Gossip Girl.

The Boys actor, 40, appeared on the Monday, May 11 episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, where he was asked about the show, for which Shepard’s wife, Kristen Bell, provided the memorable voiceover. Specifically, the host was curious about which actors were romantically involved.

“There’s things that happen, or like, connections that happen,” he explained. “I never dated anyone on the show. There were people who… I remember, there’s a lot of guest stars and people who orbit the show who you meet through other friends, even. I remember that was a way to meet people.”

Shepard and his cohost, Monica Padman, noted that everyone dates people at work and that it must be easy when they’re already kissing each other on-camera. However, Crawford said that was far from the case.

“On that, there’s 60 people watching, the boom mic is there, they want you to be shirtless again. It’s like a whole other thing,” Crawford said.

Instead, the Reunion star likened the set to a college friend group, saying it was easy to have more casual relationships even if they were all at work.

“When you’re young, it is a different thing because it’s like a college experience,” he explained. “Everyone’s kind of single and dating or whatever and everyone’s sort of up for [whatever]. No one’s married. The stakes are very low, so it’s a funnier college-like experience.”

Some of the show’s confirmed real-life hookups included Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester and Sebastian Stan, and Ed Westwick and Jessica Szohr.

The actor played Nate Archibald in the TV drama, which ran from 2007 to 2012. He appeared as the character in all 121 episodes of the original series’ six-season run.