Actor Penn Badgley revealed on Friday that he asked for “zero” sex scenes in Season 4 of Netflix’s You, out of respect for his marriage. “Fidelity in every relationship, and especially in a marriage, is important to me,” he said.
Badgley, who married singer Domino Kirke in 2017, admitted during Friday’s episode of his podcast Podcrushed, that he had planned to cut back on the on-screen intimacy for his characters before he signed onto You in 2018.
“I asked Sera Gamble, the creator of the show, can I just do no more intimacy scenes?” the actor, who plays Joe Goldberg in You, said.
“This is actually a decision before I took the show,” Badgley added. “One of the reasons that I’ve — I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it publicly — but 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?”
Netflix
Badgley also admitted that marrying his wife was one of the reasons behind his decision, and noted that “fidelity” is important to him.
“It’s really important to me — like fidelity in every relationship, and especially in a marriage, is important to me,” he said. “It just got to a point where I don’t want to do that.”
The actor added that he remembered telling Gamble his “desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero” in Season 4 with regards to intimate scenes involving his character, but added that he understood that would likely not be possible.
“I signed this contract. I signed up for this show. I know what I did,” he acknowledged. “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.”
Badgley added that to his pleasant surprise, the show creator “didn’t even bat an eye” over his request.
“She was really glad that I was that honest. She had a really positive response,” he revealed. “They came back with a phenomenal reduction.”
Badgley is also known for having played Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl, and Woodchuck Todd in Easy A.
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