Penn Badgley’s exceptional performance in Netflix’s You will make any fan fall in love with a demented serial killer. Badgley’s series will return for a fifth and final season in late 2024. Playing a terrible character in the series, Badgley was often disgusted by the scenes he had to film. One Season 4 scene particularly made him nauseous when he was asked to redo it.
You, based on Caroline Kepnes’s novel series of the same name, has built a separate fan base ever since it debuted on Lifetime in 2018. Netflix took up the series from its second season onwards. The fourth season was released in two parts in 2023 and received critical acclaim.
Penn Badgley’s You Season 4 Scene Made Him Physically Sick
In You Season 4, Penn Badgley returns in a new avatar of his serial killer character, posing as Jonathan Moore. In the fourth season, Badgley befriends a group of wealthy socialites, who begin to die one by one when a serial killer hunts them.
Badgley’s hunter becomes the prey as the killer blackmails him about revealing his true identity. The season got more bloody and graphic than the previous seasons. Badgley appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to promote the season last year and opened up about dealing with the gory scenes.
When Seth Meyers asked him whether there were moments in the series where he had to take a minute, Badgley recalled his experience from the latest season. He shared that there have been instances when he had become nauseous while filming a scene.
In the fourth season, he had to film a few pick-up scenes when he couldn’t finish the scenes on time. Unfortunately for Badgley, one of the pick-up scenes involved him covered in blood in a gory set.
Badgley explained that he was sprayed down with blood and he then entered a room designed for a graphic scene. The smoky room had a table with dark fake blood all over it and a saw with meat on it for special effects. Badgley’s disgust was visible on his face as he narrated the setting. He shared with Meyers:
There have been a few times where I’ve spontaneously become nauseous, like just in this last season. I [strapped] on this jumpsuit and then they sprayed me down with blood fully. I have goggles on and then I walk into this room they’ve created to make it look like the place we were in and it’s full of smoke and dark fake blood all over the table and a table saw with meat on it.
The Gossip Girl actor further added that he let the nausea come through. Badgley’s effort paid off heavily as the season received a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics cited that it was Penn Badgley’s performance that did the heavy lifting for the season.
Penn Badgley Accidentally Broke Netflix’s Publicity Embargo For You Season 4
Penn Badgley also revealed one mistake he made during the promotion of You Season 4. He shared with Seth Meyers that he usually wasn’t the type to post on social media and even refrained from posting about the bigger announcements regarding his Netflix series. However, he shared one promotional image from the series at 9:00 am on the day of its unveiling.
He shared that he took the image from a Netflix spreadsheet, which he shared made him quite nervous. After posting the image, he went back to the sheet to find out that it wasn’t supposed to go out until noon that day. He quickly deleted the image but went on to explain the accident in a follow-up post.
It is unknown how the streaming platform may have reacted to his accidental mistake. They might have put the mistake behind them as Badgley is all set to complete his run as a serial killer later this year.
Fans can catch all four seasons of You on Netflix now.
