‘You’ Star Penn Badgley Wanted No More Intimacy Scenes On His Netflix Show, So The Creator Said Fine

Gee, this is all it takes?

On Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast, the star of Netflix’s You revealed that he asked creator Sera Gamble to put the kibosh on sex in season 4– and she said yes.

That’s a tall order considering the show is about an obsessive charmer named Joe Goldberg (Badgley) who falls in love with a series of women. The first two seasons, in particular, were jam-packed with coitus because, well, that’s Joe.

But that’s not Badgley, apparently.

“I asked Sera Gamble can I just do no more intimacy scenes,” he told his co-host Nava Kavelin on the podcast from Stitcher Studios. “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?”

“Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me,” continues Badgley. “It’s got to the point where I don’t want to do that. So I said to Sera, ‘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.”

Badgley’s character is headed to London in season 4, the first part of which dropped Feb. 9 on Netflix. The second part of the season will launch March 10.

Netflix didn’t reveal how many episodes were in season four but the previous three seasons have been ten episodes, suggesting a five-and-five split this year. Badgley is joined in season four by Charlotte Richie, star of the BBC’s Call The Midwife and Ghosts, and The White Lotus’ Lukas Gage.

Tilly Keeper, Amy Leigh Hickman, Tati Gabrielle and Ed Speelers are also series regulars.