The former 'Gossip Girl' actor reveals he will no longer do onscreen intimacy and has asked TV bosses to delete his sex scenes from his Netflix television show.
- February 11, 2023
AceShowbiz - Penn Badgley requested sex scenes to be removed from "You". The 32-year-old actor - who shares son James, two, with wife Domino Kirke - was aware it would be difficult to bow out of on-camera intimacy because of the raunchy earlier seasons of the drama, in which he plays charming killer Joe Goldberg, so he was thankful that showrunner Sera Gamble was more than happy to comply with his wishes.
"I asked Sera Gamble can I just do no more intimacy scenes. This is actually a decision I made before I took the show. I don't think I have ever mentioned it publicly. One of the main things was, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I'm always playing the romantic lead?" Penn told co-host Nava Kavelin when speaking on his "Podcrushed" podcast.
"Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me. It's got to the point where I don't want to do that. So I said to Sera, 'my desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero.' But I signed this contract. I signed up for this 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. She didn't even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest. She was sort of almost, I want to say empowered, it had a really positive response. They came back with a phenomenal reduction."
Season four of "You" sees the action switch to London and Penn had a "great time" shooting in the UK last year, though it meant being separated from his wife and son. He told BBC Newsbeat, "I wasn't able to be with my family as much as I would have liked to."
"Apart from that, it was a great time, I remember it so fondly. I do truly love something of the culture there. My wife is British, she was born and raised there until she was a teenager so I just really truly did enjoy it."
