You has way less sex scenes in Season 4 because of a request made by lead star Penn Badgley. The 36-year-old actor revealed how that came to be on the latest episode of his Podcrushed podcast, after the new season of the show dropped on Netflix Feb. 9.
“I asked Sera Gamble, can I just do no more intimacy scenes,” Penn said on the podcast. For those that don’t know, Sera, 39, is the creator of You, which stars Penn as Joe Goldberg, a terrifying serial killer and stalker.
“This is actually a decision I made before I took the show,” Penn further explained. “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 said that he wanted to prioritize his marriage to Domino Kirke, 39, over the Netflix role. “Like, fidelity, in every relationship, and especially my marriage, is important to me. And it just got to that point where I don’t want to do that,” the father-of-one shared. “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,” he added.
Luckily for Penn, Sera “didn’t even bat an eye” after he asked for less sex scenes. “She was really glad that I was that honest. She was sort of… I want to say almost like empowered. Yeah, she had a really positive response. And they came back with a phenomenal reduction,” Penn said.
In the new season of You, Joe (Penn) is living in London with a new identity. He now goes by Jonathan Moore, a university professor. Season 3 star Tati Gabrielle returns as Marienne Bellamy, who Joe became obsessed with. The new cast members include Charlotte Ritchie, Tilly Keeper, Ed Speleers, and Lukas Gage. Part 1, featuring the first 5 episodes, were released Feb. 9. Part 2 will be out March 9.