Here's why Penn Badgley requested fewer sex scenes on You
- TV Show
Fans of You might notice that there's a lot more mystery solving than ill-fated foursomes in season 4.
It turns out that the lack of sex scenes in the new episodes is the answer to a request from star Penn Badgley himself. In a bonus episode of his Stitcher Studios podcast Podcrushed, the former Gossip Girl star explained that he'd like to put "intimacy scenes" in the rearview.
"I asked Sera Gamble, the creator, 'can I just do no more intimacy scenes?' This is actually a decision I had made before I took the show. I don't think I had ever mentioned it publicly, but one of the main things is like, do I want to put myself back in a career path where I'm just always a romantic lead?" he said.
Badgley, who is married to Domino Kirke (the pair share son James), is focused on prioritizing his family over more romantic roles.
"Like, fidelity, in every relationship, and especially my marriage, is important to me. And it just got to that point where I don't want to do that," he said.
However, Badgley understood that taking Joe Goldberg's lust "from 100 to zero" would be inauthentic to the show. Joe's obsession does often come from a place of love... kind of. "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," Badgley said.
But Gamble "didn't even bat an eye" at his request. "She was very glad that I was that honest," Badgley said. "She had a really positive response."
"They came back with a phenomenal reduction," he added of the number of sex scenes in season 4. Indeed, the first half of the season sees Joe focusing on who in London is stalking him, rather than an all-consuming romantic obsession. But Joe is still Joe, even as he masquerades as literature professor Jonathan Moore, and finds himself in a few entanglements.
Watch the video above for Badgley's full comments.
You season 4, part 1, is streaming now on Netflix. Part 2 will drop March 9.
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