Penn Badgley amazed us again with his performance in the second part of the fourth season of You, which arrives March 9 on Netflix. We met the actor in Gossip Girlthe drama conceived by Josh Schwartz, in which he played the charming Dan Humphrey. In the new series of the streaming giant Penn Badgley instead he decided to step into the shoes of a much darker character. Joe Goldberg, in fact, is a serial killer suffering from a clinical pathology that drives him to obsess and pursue his victims in the name of love. Given the excellent numbers that the new season of Youwe can state that Penn Badgley managed to score another hit. It therefore seems incredible to us that at some point in his career he had considered giving up acting.
Yet Penn Badgley has said that in the past he had seriously considered giving up acting.
If the actor of Gossip Girl e You had considered interrupting his career on the rise, it was because he didn’t accept being objectified by moviegoers and the film industry. She revealed it in a long interview with Harper’s Bazaar which was published on March 10th. The actor admitted to having often felt very uncomfortable in several scenes that he shot during his career, especially in the intimate ones. He also shared during the Interview his thoughts on the demeaning situation that actors and actresses in the industry experience, who are constantly objectified in Hollywood:
“I’ve felt very uncomfortable with a lot of things I’ve had to do throughout my career. It doesn’t always have to be something sexual. It’s just that, as an actor, you become an object. And this is largely the experience of women. But it must be said that the experience is the same for men too, even if the dynamic that develops for women and men is different. (…) I’ve always thought about it. So again, none of these thoughts are new to me, to be honest. I am painfully aware of these challenges that especially women in our industry have been facing for some time. I publicly said that there were some moments where I wondered if I could continue acting or not. That’s one of the reasons.”
For this reason, now that he has been able to say no, preferred to ask the writers of You to allow him to avoid filming intimate scenes in the new season. This choice infuriated fans who accused Penn Badgley of being scandalized by the sex scenes and not batting an eye on the sequences in which he simulated a murder. The actor was keen to explain why it’s especially the intimate sequences that make him so uncomfortable:
“When a homicide is simulated, nothing is real. When you are simulating a sex scene, your body is touching another person’s body. There is only one act that is not simulated. Right? Would I like to play a less violent person? You are making a fool of me? Obviously. I wish I didn’t represent all these negative things? Safe. You have to see case by case, but when my body actually touches another person’s body, it’s not a simulation. This is the only thing that is not simulated. Everything else is obviously simulated.“
