Penn Badgley says a movie night brought him and his stepson closer

Penn Badgley is opening up about fatherhood and how he connected with his teenage stepson.

The "Gossip Girl" alum, who shares a 3-year-old son with wife Domino Kirke and also helps co-parent the singer's 15-year-old son from a previous relationship, recently explained on the New York Times' "Modern Love" podcast that he has "two different kind of parental roles."

Of his stepson, Badgley noted that "his father is very much in his life, so his father is his father, and I'm something else."

Though he said his stepson "doesn't want to spend that much time with us anyway" as a teen, the two recently bonded during a movie night watching "Edge of Tomorrow," which he called "such a good action movie."

"I just knew it was important," he said. "It was like the stars had aligned so that my wife and 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 right now. We're going to do this."

"He loved it," the "You" actor continued, adding that one of the of the best ways to show love is to "watch things with people."