Penn Badgley Downplays Backlash to Request for Less Sex on You , Says Comments Were 'Blown out of Proportion'
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Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images Penn Badgley
Penn Badgley is setting the record straight.
After public backlash over his comments about wanting to limit his intimate scenes in Netflix's You, the actor has said his remarks were "blown out of proportion."
"What I was speaking about wasn't actually the final product," Badgley, 36, said in an interview with GQ published Tuesday. "It was sort of like the culture inherent to the production of all movies, but particularly those scenes. It's like, look, we know that Hollywood has had a history of flagrant exploitation and abuse."
He added that he had been "nervous" at first to bring up the topic about limiting his sex scenes in the show with You showrunner Sera Gamble, but her openness put him at ease.
"I was nervous to even have that conversation. It was not easy. It was easy because of Sera's response, and I felt relieved," he said. "But technically speaking, if I thought I'd had the ability to set that boundary earlier, I would have."
Courtesy of Netflix
Badgley noted that his request did not "change the trajectory of [You's fourth season] at all," as his character Joe "was naturally ready to not be in that position anymore." However, he admitted that his decision could impact future projects that he signs on to.
"We shall see if setting that boundary, of course, has any ramifications. Just simply, it does limit the number of projects you can be a part of," he said.
The Gossip Girl alum revealed last month on the Podcrushed podcast that he asked Gamble to cut his sex scenes for the latest season.
"I asked Sera Gamble, [the] creator, 'Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?' This was actually a decision I had made before I took the show," he said. "I don't think I've ever mentioned it publicly, but one of the main things is, 'Do I want to put myself back on a career path where I'm always [the] romantic lead?'"
He continued, "It got to a point where [I thought], 'I don't want to do that,' so I said to Sera, like, 'My desire would be zero [intimate scenes], to go from 100 to zero.'"
Courtesy of Netflix
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Badgley later cited his marriage to Domino Kirke-Badgley, with whom he shares 2-year-old son James, as one of the reasons for his decision in an interview with Variety.
"My fidelity in my relationship. It's important to me," Badgey said. "And actually, it was one of the reasons that I initially wanted to turn the role down. I didn't tell anybody that. But that is why."
Badgley said that although he's "done a fair amount" of sex scenes leading up to now, he has "always" felt "disturbed" by it.
"It's not a place where I've blurred lines," Badgley explained to Variety. "There's almost nothing I could say with more consecration. That aspect of Hollywood has always been very disturbing to me — and that aspect of the job, that mercurial boundary — has always been something that I actually don't want to play with at all."
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All four seasons of You are now available to stream on Netflix.
