For three full seasons, Penn Badgley has been keeping things skeevy as Stalker Joe in Netflix’s You, even as the show screams past Caroline Kepnes’ source material with a London-based adventure on the way. The former Gossip Girl actor does such a good job at embodying a sociopath that he was disturbed by the reception, which included women begging him to (as Joe) stalk them, too. Most of this was (hopefully) in jest, and a lot of it was based upon how Joe’s own rose-colored narration viewed his first (TV) victim, Beck.
Actually, his pursuit of Beck was incredibly chilling, given that he watched her have sex with Benji and stole her phone and hid in her shower and, yeah, it’s really hard to see how women were attracted to this, even if the show itself was executed so amusingly in places that the story was addictive. For his part, Penn observed that he received some unexpected notes from producers and directors. On Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast, Badgley opened up about how Joe’s streetside jerkoff scene (among other similar ones) was a little too convincing, and he was asked to reel it in. Via Indiewire:
“Every time I’ve done a masturbation scene…I’ve always gotten the note to make it less creepy,” Badgley explained. “They say like, ‘Close your eyes or go faster or go slower.’ I’m like, ‘What? This man is f*cking murdering people, and he’s masturbating in the street. You’re saying I’m making it creepy? How is it I’m the one making it creepy?’”
The “Gossip Girl” alum continued, “I just remember I wouldn’t close my eyes and the director came up to me,” Badgley recalled. “He was like ‘Buddy, I think you gotta close your eyes.’”
What a visual image to think about Badgley’s face upon receiving those notes. And he’s probably got plenty of jerking off left to do, so it’s time to mix up the routine, Penn! Last season, his Mr. and Mrs. Smith-style serial-killing counterpart, Love, ended up biting the dust, and Joe fled to Paris, but the show has since revealed that London turns into Stalker City, where Joe has a “bloody good time.”
I’m still mad that this pile of books doesn’t include Kierkegaard. Every production possible should say Kierkegaard with zest, and Joe could even do it while masturbating. Now there’s an episode for You.
(Via Indiewire)