Before production on YOU Season 4 got underway, the hit Netflix thriller’s leading man made one request for the series.
Penn Badgley opened up in the latest episode of his Podcrushed podcast that he asked YOU showrunner Sera Gamble to cut down on his sex scenes.
“I asked Sera Gamble, [the] creator, ‘Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?’ This was actually a decision I had made before I took the show,” the Gossip Girl alum said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it publicly, but one of the main things is, Do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always [the] romantic lead?”
Badgley married Domino Kirk in 2017.
The star went on to speak about fidelity in a relationship and how it’s “important to me.”
“It got to a point where [I thought], ‘I don’t want to do that,’ so I said to Sera, like, ‘My desire would be zero [intimate scenes], to go from 100 to zero.'”
Badgley recognized that he “signed this contract” and “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.”
The good news?
Gamble accommodated the actor’s request, with the Joe Goldberg actor saying she “didn’t even bat an eye.”
“She was really glad that I was that honest, and she was sort of almost empowered.”
“She had a really positive response and they came back with a phenomenal reduction.”
YOU Season 4 serves as a reboot for the series, shifting the action to London as Joe finds himself caught up amongst a new group of people.
Thankfully, the series finds its purpose again after going a bit sideways with YOU Season 3.
Netflix decided to drop just half of the season this month, but the rest of Season 4 premieres on March 9.
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Catch all episodes of YOU on Netflix around the globe.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.