Why Penn Badgley requested no sex scenes in You season 4
Penn Badgley, who plays Joe Goldberg aka Jonathan Moore in Netflix's You has opened up about why he asked for less sex scenes for his character in season four.
Fans of the show will know things have historically got *quite* steamy for Joe, kicking off with his obsession with Guinevere Beck in season one, all the way through to his marriage to Love Quinn in season three.
Before filming season four (which part one of landed on Netflix yesterday), the actor revealed he asked the lead showrunner whether he could dial down the intimate scenes.
"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," he told the Podcrushed podcast. "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 decision was also partly out of respect for his real life marriage to Domino Kirke, who he married in 2017, later welcoming their son in 2020. "Fidelity in every relationship — especially in a marriage — is important to me," he continued. "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.'"
Adding that he knew it might not be possible, Penn continued, "I signed this contract. I signed up for the show. I know what I did. You can't take this aspect out of the DNA of the concept, so 'How much less can you make it?' was my question to them."
Much to his relief, creator Sera "didn't even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest, and she was sort of almost empowered. She had a really positive response and they came back with a phenomenal reduction."
So that explains the lack of steamy scenes, then.
You Might Also Like
