Actors Who Addressed Their Decision Not to Kiss Costars, Film Sex Scenes Over the Years: From Penn Badgley to Kirk Cameron
16.02.2023 - 18:27
/ usmagazine.com
Creating boundaries. Penn Badgley, Neal McDonough and more stars have candidly discussed their decisions not to film sex scenes in future projects.
When season 4 of You premiered in February 2023, the Gossip Girl alum broke down how his marriage to Domino Kirke shifted his time filming the Netflix series.
“I asked [the creator of the show] Sera Gamble, ‘Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?'” Badgley revealed during an episode of his “Podcrushed” podcast. “This is actually a decision I’d made before I took the show.”
He continued: “I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it publicly, but one of the main things was, like, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m just always the romantic lead. Fidelity in every relationship, and especially my marriage, is really important to me.”
At the time, the actor explained that he thought about cutting back on intimacy scenes as soon as he accepted the role of Joe Goldberg. (You debuted in 2018.)
“It just got to a point where I don’t want to do that. Before I took the show, it was a question, ‘Do I have a career if I don’t?’ Think about every male lead you’ve loved. Are they kissing someone? Are they doing a lot more than that?” Badgley, who welcomed a son with his wife in September 2020, continued. “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 for them.”
The Easy A actor credited You‘s showrunner for allowing him the freedom to veto future sex scenes, saying, “She didn’t even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest, and she had a really positive response. She