Jameela Jamil and Penn Badgley are two celebrities known for setting boundaries for themselves. Badgley received equal amounts of scrutiny and praise earlier this year when he publicly explained that he would no longer be filming explicit sex scenes for his Netflix series You, citing his commitment to the relationship he has with his real-life wife Domino Kirke.
Similarly, Jamil is known for her outspokenness and activism for all manner of issues, from body image to feminism to sexuality, and more. On the most recent episode of Badgley’s podcast Podcrushed, Jamil reflected on an opportunity she had to audition for You, which she backed out to respect her own boundaries.
“I was supposed to audition for the most recent season of your show,” she told Badgley. “My character was supposed to be quite sexy, and I pulled out of the audition, because I am so shy about anything sexy that I can’t.”
Jamil spoke at length on the podcast about her childhood trauma and sexual abuse and she explained that as a result of her past, she made a rule for herself: “I don’t do sex scenes.”
While Jamil doesn’t regret her decision to stick to her guns, she said that Badgley’s similar decision to pull back from sex scenes made her reconsider her choice.
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“And then you f—ing came out and were like, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing sex scenes anymore.’ And I was like, ‘F—ing hell, I didn’t even know that was a boundary that we could draw,’” she recalled. “But then I was like, I should have gone and done the f—ing show.”
“Season 5! You is no longer sexy!” Badgley told her.
Jamil laughed and replied, “If you need an asexual character to murder, just bring me in.”
If there’s one thing Jamil is great at onscreen, it’s being killed off — just look no further than her roles in The Good Place and Poker Face for proof.
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