Badgley was being profiled by GQ when he told the interviewer that he was tired of being perceived as "the nice guy."
Prior to his role as creepy heartthrob bookstore manager Joe Goldberg, the actor was known for playing the archetypal nice guy Dan Humphrey in "Gossip Girl."
The show, which ran from 2007 to 2012, enjoyed enormous success and Badgley became a cult actor-local in his own New York City, where he was often recognized from his character.
However, that perception didn't do his career any favors, he told GQ.
"Up until this role, everybody thought I was such a nice guy," Badgley said.
"And it's great to be a nice guy, but the kind of nice guy that makes 'nice guy' an insult that's actually not a nice guy. I think that's what frustrated me.
"Lo and behold, I play somebody who's not a nice guy, and that everybody loves. We don't like Dan Humphrey. We like Chuck Bass. We like Joe Goldberg. So in a sense, what do you expect?"
The 32-year-old has found some similarities between Joe Goldberg and Dan Humphrey, though. Spoiler alert: Badgley's character in "Gossip Girl" turns out to be the eponymous blogger.
He told the New York Times last month : "First of all, any part of me that was resisting the Dan Humphrey comparison has stopped because I've come to recognize how much of this is a surreal progression of Dan Humphrey.
"He's the very special white man who somehow thinks that he's an outsider, and it's like, 'Bro, you're not an outsider you are the inside; everyone else is on the outside.'
"It would all be so comical, if it wasn't also the generating impulse for so much prejudice which can get translated into violence."
In a series of tweets, the actor reminded fans that Joe is a murderer and has a "whole new level" of problems. He added that putting an end to the romanticization of his character will be his motivation for season 2.
