Why Penn Badgley Is the Reason for Fewer Sex Scenes in ‘You’
Penn Badgley plays the manipulative charmer Joe Goldberg in the hit Netflix series You, which means many relationships with women and lots and lots of sex scenes. But the actor has said ‘No more!’
Speaking on a recent episode of his Podcrushed podcast, the actor explained how he asked the show’s creator, Sera Gamble, if he could do fewer intimacy scenes in the fourth season. And, to his surprise, Gamble said yes.
“I asked Sera Gamble, can I just do no more intimacy scenes,” he told his co-host Nava Kaveli. “This is actually a decision I made before I took the show. I don’t think I have ever mentioned it publicly. One of the main things was, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always playing the romantic lead?”
Before his lead role in You, Badgley was best known for playing Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series Gossip Girl from 2007 to 2012, and before that, he appeared as Phillip Chancellor IV on the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
“Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me,” he continued. “It’s got to the point where I don’t want to do that. So I said to Sera, ‘My desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero.’ But I signed this contract. I signed up for this show. I know what I did. You can’t take this aspect out of the DNA of the concept. So how much less can you make it, was my question to them.”
Badgley explained that Gamble “didn’t even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest. She was sort of almost; I want to say empowered. It had a really positive response. They came back with a phenomenal reduction.”
The first part of Season 4 landed on Netflix on Thursday, February 9, with the second part set to premiere on March 9. The fourth season stars Call The Midwife’s Charlotte Ritchie and The White Lotus’ Lukas Gage, in addition to Tilly Keeper, Amy Leigh Hickman, Tati Gabrielle, and Ed Speelers.
You, Season 4 Part 1, Streaming Now, Part 2 Premieres Thursday, March 9, Netflix
