You star Penn Badgley says Joe Goldberg would probably 'despise' Taylor Swift

Joe Goldberg is not a Swiftie, sorry.

Penn Badgley suspects that his serial killer stalker in Netflix's hit psychological thriller You is not a fan of Taylor Swift. "I think, unfortunately, he would despise her," Badgley told Variety in an interview published Wednesday. "Because she's successful and blonde, maybe? I don't know, but I think he would."

Joe might not be a Swiftie, but one could say that Badgley is. The actor directs an upcoming episode of the series, currently in its fourth season, and let it be known that the episode in question — the season's penultimate, titled "She's Not There" — contains a Swift reference. Badgley said he was surprised by how much he loved stepping behind the camera.

"Not that I expected not to, but — I loved it," he said. "It reinvented the show for me."

Netflix; Lester Cohen/Getty Penn Badgley as Joe on 'You'; Taylor Swift

Badgley didn't share details about the aforementioned Swift reference, but it wouldn't be the first time the "Anti-Hero" singer has appeared in the Youniverse. Swift's "Exile" ft. Bon Iver, from her 2020 surprise pandemic album Folklore, aptly plays at the end of the explosive season 3 finale, which saw Joe fake his own death and burn down his home with Love (Victoria Pedretti) following their big showdown. (She drugged and tried to kill him. You know how it goes.)

You showrunner Sera Gamble told EW back in 2021 that Folklore helped her navigate the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the song felt suitable for the moment.

"During the pandemic, when everything was just completely mad and we were all very much staying away from each other, my husband and I rented an RV because we needed to go up north, and the Folklore album had recently come out," Gamble recalled. "The RV was incredibly loud, but we cranked it all the way up and listened to it. As we were driving through the smoke of all these forest fires in the middle of a pandemic, it was a real apocalypse bonding experience."

JOHN P. FLEENOR/NETFLIX Penn Badgley as Joe and Victoria Pedretti as Love on 'You' season 3

"When we were cutting the last episode of You, I talked to Season Kent, our music supervisor, and I was like, 'Do you think there's any chance we can get this on, because I feel like it's the perfect sad song for this part?'" she said, adding, "One of the perks of being a showrunner is that you can embed almost a little bit of a journal or an autobiography into all of the work you do."

Let's not forget that Badgley also went viral when he made his TikTok debut last year alongside Swift's "Anti-Hero." He lip synced to the track as his You character in the clip, which received an "OMG" from Swift herself in the comments section.

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