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Penn Badgley has starred in two major hit shows, Gossip Girl and You. While his roles in both shows were iconic, fans would’ve seen him play yet another legendary role had he been picked for one of AMC’s biggest shows. Badgley recently revealed that he almost landed a lead role in Breaking Bad.

‘You’ is one of Netflix’s biggest hits

Penn Badgley poses for a photo in front of a white backdrop with the Sirius XM logo.
Actor Penn Badgley visits the SiriusXM Studios I Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

The first season of You followed Joe, a bookstore manager who meets and falls in love with aspiring writer Guinevere Beck. Joe feeds his toxic obsession using social media to track every move Beck makes and goes to extreme lengths to remove any obstacles that stand between their romance, including killing those around her.

In Season 2, Joe relocates to Los Angeles for a new start and falls in love with Love Quinn. For a while, things go well with him and Love, who seems like the perfect partner, until he learns that she is just as deranged as him. This revelation turns Joe off, but it is too late, as she is already pregnant with their child.

Season 3 finds Joe living in the suburbs with Love, raising their son Henry. He again falls in love with the town’s librarian, and they even sleep together. However, Love discovers and plots to kill them until Marienne’s daughter walks in, unknowingly saving her mother’s life.

Marienne leaves town, and after Joe kills Love, he sets out to find her. Joe’s search leads him to London in Season 4, where he interacts with members of the British peerage. However, this time, Joe is the one running as he has a stalker of his own with the same MO. It is now up to Joe to stop the Eat The Rich Killer and safeguard his new identity.

You has been wildly successful since its debut. In 2019, Netflix announced that over 43 million viewers had watched it since its release on the service. By 2020, the series had earned over 10 billion total minutes of streaming from 2019 through 2020 alone.

Penn Badgley was almost Jesse Pinkman

Aaron Paul will forever be remembered for his role in Breaking Bad as the former chemist and distributor Jesse Pinkman. However, viewers almost saw a different Jesse as former Gossip Girl star Badgley recently told BuzzFeed that he tried out for the role.

When asked if there were roles his fans would be surprised to learn he auditioned for, Badgley said, “A bunch. One I got close on was Breaking Bad. It was between me and Aaron Paul. We tested.” The star said he had a good time with the script, saying, “That was the best television script I’d read at that point.” Badgley called the role “the one that got away.”

Penn Badgley’s other projects

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Outside of acting, Badgley is a member of the pop band MOTHXR who released their debut album Centerfold in 2015. He also has a production company called Ninth Mode Media which currently houses his podcast Podcrushed.

Badgley announced the podcast in May 2022, tweeting, “Coming of age stories from that crushing time we call middle school in the US (11-14ish). I narrate stories submitted by you & interview guests with my two cohosts, who are chill former teachers.”

With his costars Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari, Badgley has interviewed several A-listers, including Conan O’Brien, Lisa Kudrow, and his You costars Victoria Pedretti and Elizabeth Lail.

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