Penn Badgley Almost Turned Down His Role In You For This 1 Surprising Reason
The fifth and final season of You hit Netflix on Thursday morning, marking the end of an era for Penn Badgley and his character, Joe Goldberg.
You, which follows serial killer Joe as he tries (and fails) to leave his murderous ways behind him, and settle into a more conventional, stable life.
It’s a real guilty pleasure watch – and it’s hard to imagine Joe being played by anybody but Penn.
However, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly back when the show started in 2018, Penn admitted that he actually almost didn’t even accept the role.
When asked about his initial reaction to the role, Penn revealed: “I didn’t want to do it — it was too much. I was conflicted with the nature of the role. If this is a love story, what is it saying? It’s not an average show; it’s a social experiment.”
He explained that speaking with You’s creators about Joe’s humanity eventually won him over, but he still felt a resistance to playing the role.
“I knew that I would be conflicted about the role from day one till the last day, and that is why they thought I would be good for it, is that I’m not psyched to play somebody of this nature,” Penn said.
The former Gossip Girls star’s careful approach to playing Joe, it turns out, is exactly what made him so good at the role.
He explained: “The only thing I was really concerned about was not wetting my own nature make him too human, human in a way that maybe somebody like him can’t be.”
All five seasons of You are on Netflix now.