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Celebrity

15th Feb 2023

Penn Badgley asked for fewer sex scenes in You out of respect for his marriage

Steve Hopkins

‘My desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero’

You star Penn Badgley has revealed he asked for fewer sex scenes in the latest season of the hit Netflix show.

The actor made the call out of respect for his wife, Domino Kirke, with whom he shares a two-year-old son, James.

Speaking on his Podcrushed podcast, the 36-year-old actor told co-host Nava Kavelin: “I asked [showrunner] Sera Gamble can I just do no more intimacy scenes.”

You follows Penn’s serial killer character, Joe Goldberg, and his obsession with women, and in previous seasons, has featured a lot of steamy scenes.

Penn said on the podcast: “This is actually a decision I made before I took the show. 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 fidelity “in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me”.

“It’s got to the point where I don’t want to do that,” he added.

The former Gossip Girl actor went on to say: “So I said ‘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.

“She didn’t even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest. She was sort of almost, I want to say empowered, it had a really positive response. They came back with a phenomenal reduction.”

Penn married singer, Domino Kirke, who also has a child from a previous relationship, in 2017.

Season four of You is set in London where Penn said he had “great time”, although he was separated from his family.

He told BBC Newsbeat: “I wasn’t able to be with my family as much as I would have liked to.

“Apart from that, it was a great time, I remember it so fondly. I do truly love something of the culture there.

“My wife is British, she was born and raised there until she was a teenager so I just really truly did enjoy it.”

The trailer for season four shows Penn’s killer character receiving a taste of his own medicine from a serial killer as he attempts to keep a low profile under a new identity.

After killing ten people over the past three seasons, Joe is unable to escape his past once he catches the attention of the “Eat the Rich Killer.”

Following his move to London, and his new life as Professor Jonathan Moore, Joe battles a fresh heartbreak, which becomes the “catalyst for a new path.”