‘You’ Don’t Know Penn Badgley: Surviving ‘Gossip Girl,’ Staying Sober With Blake Lively and Finding Himself in a Sexy Serial Killer

Drew Barrymore received an unforgettable birthday surprise, courtesy of “You” star Penn Badgley.

You.Maybe it’s the way Penn Badgley looks with or without a beard. Or maybe it’s the show’s funny, yet cutting satire on the people we suffer through every day.But damn, four seasons in, You (★★★★☆), Netflix’s series about a sociopath who obsesses over women, still hits that same perverse spot it did to make it one of the streamer’s best in recent years.Originally a Lifetime Original adapted from Caroline Kepnes’s book series, You was brought to the screen by producing giants Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, who installed former Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley as the lead.After one season aired on Lifetime, the show migrated to Netflix, where it blew up and has remained a permanent fixture since season two.Badgley stars as Joe Goldberg, a troubled sociopath with inclinations for becoming obsessed with random women, ingratiating himself into their lives, and then killing anyone who gets in his way.On paper, this seems like a strange recommendation in the #MeToo era, but You‘s greatest strength has become its humor, focusing on entertainment and sardonic musings on everyday life from a truly messed up man.Over the first three seasons, Joe traveled across the coasts, going from being a bookstore manager in New York to a young dad in suburban California.

Blake Lively has challenged her husband Ryan Reynolds in a tongue-in-cheek message which she posted to her Instagram story.The actress, who recently gave birth to the couple's fourth child, regularly takes to social media to joke around with her husband, and this Sunday evening it was no different. Find out all about the comedic couple's love story in the video below.WATCH: Everything we know about Blake and Ryan's wonderful love storyBlake's husband Ryan started the story thread, as he posted to his Instagram a photo celebrating his wife's drink mixer brand, Betty Buzz.

Breaking Bad, describing the part as “the one that got away”.The You star was asked in a new interview with Buzzfeed to name a role fans would be surprised that he auditioned for but didn’t get.“One I got close on was Breaking Bad,” Badgley said. “It was between me and Aaron Paul, we tested.” Paul ended up getting the role of crystal meth cook and dealer Jesse Pinkman in the hit series, which aired for five seasons between 2008 to 2013.Actually, that was the best television script I’d read at that point,” added Badgley.

Had things gone another way, Penn Badgley would have played Jesse Pinkman alongside Bryan Cranston in “Breaking Bad”.

Penn Badgley saying no to sex scenes in YOU Season 4 has gone down well but would an actress have had the same luxury? If you are as eagle-eyed as Joe Goldberg from Netflix’s psychological thriller YOU, you may have noticed the subtle but significant dialling down of raunchier scenes the show was famous for in earlier seasons. It turns out this is because the former Gossip Girl star asked to do as few sex scenes as possible out of respect for his wife Domino Kirke.

You star Penn Badgley has said his character would “probably despise” Taylor Swift.When asked about his first effort at a TikTok video in conversation with Variety, Badgley discussed having set the song to Taylor Swift’s recent single ‘Anti-Hero’.Badgley lip-syncs to the song on TikTok, with the clip having gone viral and Swift commenting “OMG!!!!” on the social media platform.However, the actor said that his character Joe Goldberg “probably despises” Taylor Swift, despite one episode of You containing a reference to the pop icon.“I think, unfortunately, he would despise her,” Badgley said. “Because she’s successful and blonde, maybe? I don’t know, but I think he would.”In a four-star review of You season four part one, NME wrote: “Yes, it’s all very silly, but it’s also surprisingly gripping and consistently witty.”Penn Badgley recently revealed he requested to have no unnecessary sex scenes in the recent season of You, due to his marriage to singer Domino Kirke.Speaking on the podcast Podcrushed, Badgley said: “I asked Sera Gamble, the creator of the show, ‘Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?’“This was actually a decision I had made before I took the show.

in the fame department after Gossip Girl first premiered in the mid-aughts. Obviously, this was only heightened after tabloids caught wind of his . Stressful as this period was, Badgley said that dating Lively may have saved him from going down a destructive path. Plenty of young stars from this era have been open about dealing with substance abuse (, , , etc.), but Badgley said in an interview with that he never really did.

Creating boundaries. Penn Badgley, Neal McDonough and more stars have candidly discussed their decisions not to film sex scenes in future projects.

While Dan and Serena made it down the aisle on Gossip Girl, Penn Badgley and Blake Lively called it quits long before the 2012 series finale.

Penn Badgley discusses experiencing “Gossip Girl” fame and his three-year relationship with co-star Blake Lively in a new interview with Variety.

Penn Badgley credits his co-star and ex-girlfriend, Blake Lively, with keeping him on the right track as his fame was on the rise.In a new interview with, Badgley opens up about his three-year romance with Lively, who played his character Dan Humphrey's on-screen love interest, Serena van der Woodsen.The pair started dating in real life in 2007 at the start of the teen drama's run.“Beyond our relationship, I don’t think anybody was going to be interested in me publicly,” Badgley says, adding of his overnight fame, “It was a little bit night and day. I think the date was Sept.

Netflix is still releasing pretty much everything (outside of some reality shows) in their patented binge model. All of the episodes, all at once.

Dropping hints. Taylor Swift’s fans think that she hinted at Blake Lively’s baby name for her fourth child with Ryan Reynolds. Many theories popped up after some fans read into a very specific name being dropped in one of her songs off of Midnights.

“I’m not some cold-blood psycho killer.” To which all fans of Netflix’s You would say, sure Joe, sure.

Penn Badgley isn't holding back when it comes to romanticized portrayals of infamous serial killers on Netflix — even if he plays one.The 36-year-old actor, who plays fictional murderer Joe Goldberg in acknowledged the audience's growing fascination with serial killers amid portrayals of several notorious, real-life killers in TV shows and movies in recent years on the streaming platform.Badgley specifically singled out Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, two serial killers who were given the Netflix treatment in the 2019 Zac Efron film,  and the 2022 Evan Peters series, though he never mentions the projects by name. Peters, for his part, won a Golden Globe for his performance as Jeffrey Dahmer.«You need to look at that, inside,» Badgley said when asked his thoughts on people admitting their attraction toward problematic men. «Now, to be fair, with our show you're meant to fall in love with him.

Netflix is to blame for fans loving serial killers like You‘s Joe Goldberg.The actor said the point of his character in the Netflix hit was that people were “meant to fall in love with him”. However, Badgley also said that the current trend of people voicing their attraction to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer was on the streaming service.Taking part in an interview for Entertainment Tonight’s TikTok account (see below), the former Gossip Girl actor said people needed to reflect on what’s “inside” them if they were attracted to killers.Badgley was asked in the clip about the message he’d send to “people who are finding themselves attracted to serial killers”.

, part of the blame falls on the shoulders of itself.While acknowledging that Joe Goldberg, the fictional murderer he plays on You, is written to be attractive to audiences, Badgley doesn't mince words when it comes to how the streamer has romanticized real-life killers like Jeffrey Dahmer. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Badgley said that anyone who finds themselves drawn to serial killer characters should first look inward for why that might be. But, he added, that doesn't excuse how these characters are portrayed to audiences. “To be fair, with our show, you’re meant to fall in love with [Joe].

Kate Aurthur editor Penn Badgley has been in the headlines recently, and not only because Part 1 of the fourth season of “You” dropped on Feb. 9: On his podcast “Podcrushed” last week, Badgley talked about his strong dislike of filming intimate scenes — and the internet exploded with thoughts about his remarks. He also said that he’d shared his feelings with Sera Gamble, the “You” showrunner, ahead of the season. In turn, he said, Gamble had a “really positive response and they came back with a phenomenal reduction” for Season 4. In two wide-ranging interviews for this week’s Variety cover story, which will be released on Feb. 15, Badgley spoke expansively on the subject. In our story, Badgley details how the number of sex scenes he knew he’d have to do for “You” had been a major factor in 2017 in him not wanting to play the role of serial killer/love addict Joe Goldberg. The whole series, after all, revolves around Joe’s romantic fixations, and how he gets the women he’s fallen for to submit to his charms. By design, “You” has a ton of sex.

Penn Badgley might play a fictional serial killer in Netflix’s hit show You, but that doesn’t mean he’s Ok with the way real-life serial killers are romanticized in pop culture.