Warning: Spoilers ahead from the final season of “You.”
It appears Penn Badgley has had a change of heart about those steamy “You” scenes.
After previously revealing that he swore off filming racy scenes for Netflix’s “You” for professional and personal reasons, the actor, who plays the charming, yet deeply troubled serial killer Joe Goldberg, walked back his vow for the sake of the dramatic final season of the beloved show. And he did so for an earnest reason that makes us love Badgley even more.
“I actually fought to be as naked as possible in that last sequence because he needed to be as dangerously close to being witnessed finally as a sexual predator that he was,” Badgley told People in a story published April 25.
In the season finale of “You,” which aired on April 24, Goldberg’s reign of terror finally comes to an end after he’s arrested and imprisoned for life. In an intense sequence leading up to his arrest, Goldberg — donning only a pair of boxer briefs — is brought to justice by his star-crossed lover Bronte (Madeline Brewer) after a gripping chase scene through the woods at night.
The bloody tussle kicks off after Bronte pulls out a gun just as she and Goldberg are about to have sex after the two fled the city following his supposed murder of his ex-wife Kate Lockwood (Charlotte Ritchie).
According to Badgley, the juxtaposition of Goldberg being nearly nude and Bronte being covered up is an important juxtaposition that puts a microscope on the dark depths of Goldberg’s murderous existence and wrongdoings.
Badgley told the outlet that featuring sex scenes on the show’s latest season was “needed” so fans could really “see” the monster that Goldberg truly is.
“He needed to be seen in that way to be kind of saying to everybody, is this what you needed to see in order to realize who he is?” he continued. “We withheld it from now, but is this what you need to see? And that’s, I think, a really juicy kind of engagement and question with the viewer that we’re all a part of.”
The “Gossip Girl” alum explained that “in order to do that, the truth is we really had to return to form with him being a romantic icon.”
He added: “That’s what he is. He can’t just be killing and masturbating. Sorry, not sorry. That’s what he does. I didn’t write it. I didn’t even shoot it!”
In a February 2023 episode of Badgley’s “Podcrushed” podcast, the leading man revealed why, at that time, he hoped to avoid filming intimate scenes on the show.
“One of the main things is like, do I want to put myself back in a career path where I’m just always a romantic lead?” he said.
“Fidelity in my — in every relationship, and especially my marriage — is important to me,” he added. “And yeah, it just got to a point where I don’t want to do that.”
Badgley tied the knot with singer Domino Kirke-Badgley back in 2017. The couple welcomed their first child together in 2020.
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The actor went on to say that while he understood that sex scenes are just a part of the show’s DNA, he appreciated showrunner Sera Gamble for scaling them back.
Badgley said Gamble ultimately obliged with a “positive response” to his request, which he says led to “a phenomenal reduction” in those types of scenes.
