Acting can indeed be a tough job, especially playing the role of a psycho-stalker. Actor Penn Badgley found it hard to be a father to his children while portraying Joe in You. Talking about the declining reception for season 4 of the psycho-thriller series, Badgley had a tough time acting.
Falling back to his old patterns of obsession and eliminating obstacles, Joe Goldberg has a son to deal with during the 3rd season of the show. With the launch of the 4th season of You, the actor talked about being a father while acting out such a tough role.
Penn Badgley Talks About Fatherhood And Acting in You
Every great movie or series has its end. Not all series can end their episodes on a high note and that seems to be the case for You. Although the reviews seemed great at first, the people started taking to Twitter and review-bombing the series for several things that the show allegedly lacked.
Actor Penn Badgley, during an interview, talked about how difficult it was to portray the character of Joe Goldberg. With his son of Joe in the 3rd season of You and Penn Badgley being a real-life father, the actor had to worry about blurred lines between fatherhood and what the show wanted him to portray as a ‘father’.
“The funny thing is I was curious what my new fatherhood, how that would influence my experience with Joe and acting with him. And sometimes it was almost not helpful because I was having such a light and joyful experience — still am — and Joe is so petrified. He’s so scared, and of course, I can identify with the fear, but he’s just so morbid in his obsessive, sort of like self-preservation, primal instinct that sometimes I almost found it harder as a result, you know what I mean? It really depended on the scene.”
Not only this but Penn Badgley also wanted to tone down the nudity and s*x scenes that were previously set for his character in You. When he talked to Sera Gamble (the creator of You) Badgley was surprised by her reaction to the actor’s request.
Actor Penn Badgley Wanted To Tone Down The Nudity
Being married to Domino Kirke, the actor Penn Badgley stated that he wanted to tone down the intimate scenes in You. Badgley talked with the creator of the series Sera Gamble about fidelity in a relationship.
“I asked Sera Gamble, [the] creator, ‘Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?’ This was actually a decision I had made before I took the show. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it publicly, but one of the main things is, Do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always [the] romantic lead?”
The Gossip Girl actor continued,
“Fidelity in every relationship — especially in a marriage — is important to me. It got to a point where [I thought], ‘I don’t want to do that,’ so I said to Sera, like, ‘My desire would be zero [intimate scenes], to go from 100 to zero.'”
With a premise set against two psychopaths against each other, You has released half of its season on Netflix while the other half on 9th March 2023.
Source: People
