Penn Badgley made an unusual request for the lead of a successful TV show centered around a character's love interest during filming for the fourth season of his Netflix thriller.
In the most recent episode of his Podcrushed podcast, the YOU star reveals that he could just cancel out more intimacy scenes. “It's a decision I'd made before I took the program. I don't think I've ever mentioned it publicly, but one of the main things was, like, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I'm just always the romantic lead?”
'Fidelity in every relationship, and especially my marriage, is really important to me,' Badgley says. It's just gotten to a point where I don't want to do that. Think about every male leader you've loved. Are they kissing someone? Are they doing a lot more than that?
Badgley's killer character is relocated to London for a second season, after which he's ready to begin a fresh life free of love. However, the characters don't get as physical as you might expect.
"I said to Sera, 'My desire would be zero,' he adds. "I signed this contract, I signed up for this program, and I know what I did," Badgley says of his intimacy scenes. "You can't take this out of the concept, so you can't take it out of it," was my question for them. She was surprised by my honesty, and she applauded me for doing the right thing.
Gamble said of the Badgley and Ritchie's characters: "One of my favorite romantic comedies are the ones where they hide on sight, and that's a story we hadn't encountered yet." I think the romance novel community calls it enemies to lovers as a trope. Passion is passion."
The first half of YOU's 10-episode fourth season is currently streaming on Netflix. The remaining five episodes will be released on March 9 with Part 2 released.