Penn Badgley explains why he is hesitant on acting in sex scenes for the roles he plays in television and film but especially in the Netflix thriller ‘You.' The topic began on his podcast ‘Podcrushed' his apprehension on filming sex scenes back in February.
“This is actually a decision I had made before I took the show,” Penn Badgley said at the time. “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 the romantic lead?'” The actor made the request largely due to his marriage to actress Domino Kirke. Badgley and Kirke share a son together and the actor is stepfather to her son from a previous relationship.
“Fidelity in every relationship — and especially in my marriage — is important to me,” Badgley said. “I said to Sera, like, ‘My desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero.'”
The Gossip Girl alum got backlash from fans on his comments which he said were “blown out of proportion.” He responded to the blowback in his GQ article.
“It didn't change the trajectory of the season at all,” he said of his ‘You' character. “I mean, Joe was naturally ready to not be in that position anymore.”
In his newest episode of his podcast, he brought on Sera Gamble, the showrunner for ‘You' to rehash this discussion.
“It was not a very difficult conversation for me,” Gamble recalled. “Nobody was saying, ‘I refuse to do something… My job in that conversation was just to like pinpoint exactly what you were asking for and what was making you uncomfortable… We're not in the business of saying, ‘Strip down and touch someone,' if you know that's not what you wanna do.”
Badgley added that their chat is “not common” in Hollywood.
“When people bring up, ‘Well, what about murder?' It's like, guys, I'm not murdering anybody. At the end of the day, there's something that you can't simulate, which is physical touch,” the 36-year-old actor explained. “It just comes down to that. It's like, not everybody has to do this in their job.”
Although Gamble left as the showrunner in season four, she added: “The two people in that conversation are me and you. We're making the show together. We were many years into it at this point. And it's just like, let me understand. My job is just let me understand the parameters and then come back with a plan.”
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