Penn Badgley’s Wife Stopped Him From Turning Down ‘You’
You has become such a hit for Gossip Girl alum Penn Badgley that even his character’s signature hat has become iconic. But there was a good chance he might’ve missed out on the role of a lifetime if it wasn’t for his wife.
How Domino Kirke-Badgley encouraged a reluctant Penn Badgley to do ‘You’
Badgley put a lot of faith in his wife’s opinions. He started dating Domino Kirke in 2014, and the two married in 2017 before sharing one child together. Like her husband, Kirk is an artist, operating as the lead singer for her titular band DOMINO. Additionally, she’s also helped support Badgley’s acting career by giving him the reassurance he needed to do You. The actor already had plenty of reservations about playing such a disturbed character. But one of his biggest concerns he had about You was the love scenes he thought he’d have to do.
“My fidelity in my relationship, it’s important to me,” Badley said in an interview with Variety. “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.”
These concerns didn’t emerge with just You, however. Badgley had grown increasingly uncomfortable with love scenes in general.
“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.” Badgley said.
“It’s important to me in my real life to not have them,” he added.
But his wife Kirke would ultimately talk him into doing the hit Netflix show despite his grievances.
“And I wasn’t going to listen to anyone more than her,” Badgley said.
Penn Badgley asked ‘You’ showrunner Sera Gamble to tone down intimate scenes
It was noted that it wasn’t just his wife that convinced Badgley to commit to You. It was also the show’s producer, Greg Berlanti, and showrunner Sera Gamble. Gamble was able to pinpoint the exact moment she and Badgley came to an understanding.
“I felt his energy change when he realized that we were all on the same page about why we would tell a story about a character like this — it was in no way to justify Joe,” she said. “It was to vivisect him, to figure out why a milder version of this character is the lead in most romantic stories in the Western canon.”
Amid season 4, however, Badgley asked Gamble if she could tone down the love scenes in the show.
“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 on Podcrushed. “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 also reiterated how the request was as much, if not more so, out of respect for his wife than it was for his career.
“Fidelity in every relationship — especially in a marriage — is important to me,” he said.
It seemed Gamble was happy to oblige. Joe Goldberg’s season 4 relationship with the likes of Charlotte Ritchie’s Kate Galvin contains less steamy scenes than with Guinevere Beck and Love Quinn. Badgley also had love scenes with Tati Gabrielle’s Marienne Bellamy, which made Gabrielle particularly nervous. Season 4 ended with Goldberg and his latest girlfriend, or potential victim, Galvin solidifying their relationship. It’ll be interesting to see if the pair will have the same level of intimacy they had in season 4 going into You’s last season.
