During a recent episode of the Modern Love podcast, actor Penn Badgley opened up about struggling to bond with his 15-year-old stepson.
The You star, who also has a three-year-old son James with his wife Domino Kirke, got candid about the differences he faced when it comes to raising his biological versus his stepson Cassius.
Badgley first shared that Cassius' father is very present in the boy's life.
"I have an interesting situation where I have a biological son and a stepson. And my stepson is — his father is very much in his life, so his father is his father, and I'm something else."
"So I have two different kinds of parental roles."
He noted the difference in the children's age also requires him to play two different roles.
"My biological son is only 3½. So that's a very different thing too. I need to be able to more consciously show him my vulnerability as he gets older in those years."
Later in the episode, the actor explained that he initially struggled to bond with Cassius - because he's a teenager and "doesn't want to spend that much time with us anyway" - but he found an opportunity one night when his wife and James went to bed early.
"I was like, 'Hey, we need to watch a movie. We're going to watch 'The Edge of Tomorrow' with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.'"
"It's such a good action movie, you know. It was like we're going to have a great time together."
Even though he was exhausted from not getting much sleep the previous few nights, Badgley knew it was something he needed to do.
"I just knew it was important."
"It was like the stars had aligned so that my wife and my youngest son were asleep, and I was just like, 'This is a good time to do this! You're not going to play video games now. We're going to do this!'"
The Gossip Girl star said that Cassius "loved" the film and added that "watching things" with others is basically a love language.
"You want to talk about modern love? One of the ways you gotta do that is watch things with people."
You can hear Badgley discuss his different "roles" below. He speaks about bonding with his stepson at the 26:52 mark.
Actor Penn Badgley Reads a Modern Love essayyoutu.be
People on social media commended the actor for finding a way to bond with his stepson.
Good Morning America/Facebook
Good Morning America/Facebook
HuffPost/Facebook
And Badgley's efforts have not gone unnoticed.
For Father's Day, his wife shared some candid moments of the actor with their child with a caption recognizing his dedication to being a great father.
"To a real, patient, kind, devoted, sexy one."
"We’ve slept about 7 hrs total this week, but I can say without question there’s no one I’d rather be sleep deprived with. You’re so loved."
And fans echoed the sentiment.
@domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
@domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
@domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
@domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
@domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
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@domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
@domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
@domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
So sweet! We hope the bond continues to grow stronger.
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
@tismejackieg/TikTok
