Penn Badgley explains his reasons for making the request to showrunner Sera Gamble.
Don't expect to see Joe Goldberg getting too hot and heavy in the new season of You.
As Penn Badgley newly revealed on the Podcrushed podcast, he made a request to the hit Netflix series' showrunner to limit his intimacy scenes. "I asked Sera Gamble, creator of the show, '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've ever mentioned it publicly, but it’s... one of the main things is, like, 'Do I want to put myself back on a career path where I'm just always romantic lead?'"
Badgley, famous for his performances as Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl and rom-coms like John Tucker Must Die and Easy A, is married to Domino Kirke and is a dad to their son, James, 2, and Kirke's son from a previous relationship, Cassius, 14.
"Fidelity in every relationship -- and especially in my marriage -- is important to me," he said of doing the scenes.
"I said to Sera, like, 'My desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero,'" he recalled.
Still, Badgley acknowledged, "I signed this contract. I signed up for this show. I know what I did. You know, 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."
Fortunately, according to Badgley, Gamble was understanding. “She didn't even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest, and she was sort of I want to say almost, like, empowered. She had a really positive response. She appreciated my directness and she appreciated that I was also being reasonable and practical and they came back with a phenomenal reduction."
As for the show's newest plot line, the actor acknowledged during an interview with ET that viewers will likely have questions after watching the first five episodes of the fourth season, out now.
"If you have questions, there will be answers," he promised. "They are probably wondering, 'What the hell? What is going on?' Trust me, just a few episodes more, it really does what the show does best. I think in episode 8, you actually see a different side to Joe that you’ve never seen. The show does something that it's never done before and I think it's really rewarding."
Season 4 of You on Netflix is split into two parts, with the first part now streaming, and the second part expected to premiere on March 9. Both parts consist of five episodes.
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