Don’t expect to see nearly as much of Penn Badgley in Season 4 of You. The actor revealed that he specifically requested series creator Sera Gamble significantly reduce the amount intimacy scenes in his Netflix hit, and she happily obliged.
While speaking on his Podcrushed podcast, Badgley — who plays You‘s women-obsessed serial killer Joe Goldberg — opened up about why he no longer wanted to partake in sex scenes on the show.
“I asked Sera Gamble, creator of the show, can I just do no more intimacy scenes,” he said. “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 is like, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always playing the romantic lead?”
Aside from his desire to stray away from being the typical “romantic lead,” Badgley revealed that he also wanted to respect his wife, Domino Kirke, whom he wed in 2017.
“Fidelity in every relationship, and especially my marriage, is important to me,” he said. “It just got to the point where I don’t want to do that. Of course before I took the show, it’s the question: Do I have a career if I don’t? Think about every male lead you’ve loved. Are they kissing someone? Are they doing a lot more than that? And you know, it’s really not my desire.”
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In the end, Badgley told Gamble that his desire would be “to go from 100 to zero” intimacy scenes. However, he noted his awareness of how essential they are to the storyline, which finds his character falling in love with (and ultimately murdering) a rotating door of women.
“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,” he continued. “So how much less can you make it, was my question to them.”
Badgley explained that Gamble “didn’t even bat an eye” at his request, adding that she was “really glad” that he was “that honest.”
“She was sort of almost, I want to say empowered, she had a really positive response,” he said. “She appreciated my directness and she appreciated that I was also being reasonable and practical. And they came back with a phenomenal reduction.”
The first batch of episodes in You Season 4, which finds Badgley’s character in London, is currently streaming on Netflix.
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