- The show’s final instalment has just landed on Netflix
- There’s one key difference, departing from a stipulation of Badgley’s
- Badgley plays Joe Goldberg
Fans of You might have noticed a surprising difference between the new season and the previous ones.
It’s well known that lead actor Penn Badgley, who plays the frequently obsessive Joe Goldberg, refused to do sex scenes on the show last season. He said that he opted out because idelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me”.
However, for the show’s final instalment, sex scenes were back on the table. In a recent interview, the decision was a “real question” he and the show’s creative team had to ask themselves.
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“I had to throw that out the window,” he told People of the rule.
“That was the question again. All right, what am I willing to do?” he explained. “And as I always said, I said, my desire is that least as possible, but if it’s necessary, that’s the show we all sign up to make. So, let’s make sure it’s vital, let’s make sure it’s important, it’s deliberate. And we did.”
“He’s been a profound experience for me”
Badgley also reflected on the end of the show, and stepping away from a character he has played for almost ten years.
“He’s been a profound experience for me. He’s not a real person,2 he said. “So what have I been doing? I’ve been engaging in this … my entire 30s”. I was 30 when I took the role. I’m going to be 39 this year. Even though the show, the way it came out, it’s actually been closer to seven years. For me, it’s like my 30s.”
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“I became a father while I was on this show. I only got married just before I took the role. So I’ve grown a lot and I’ve grown with Joe in a strange way,” he adds. “He’s taught me a lot about what it is to be a man by knowing what it is not. And I don’t mean the obvious things like, oh, don’t murder, that’s bad. That’s very clear.”
What happens in the new season?
We know that every season, the cycle starts again and Joe becomes obsessed with someone else. Despite now being married to Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), it appears he hasn’t escaped his patterns.
It’s brought out when he meets Bronte (Madeline Brewer), who becomes a new employee at Joe’s bookstore. Then again, she’s also got some ulterior motives…
