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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Rebecca Cook

You star Penn Badgley shares why he asked Netflix for fewer sex scenes in season four

You star Penn Badgley has spoken about his request to the Netflix showrunners for his character Joe Goldberg to have fewer intimate scenes in the fourth season of the show.

The actor, 36, landed back on the streaming platform screens this week as his softly-spoken creepy killer character tries to start afresh in London.

Yet as fans stream the first part of the season, they might have already noticed the raunch factor has been turned down a notch, as the show morphs into an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery for its fourth outing.

Penn has since spoken about requesting fewer sex scenes out of respect for his wife Domino Kirke, with whom he shares a son, James.

Speaking on his Podcrushed podcast, Penn told co-host Nava Kavelin: “I asked [showrunner] Sera Gamble can I just do no more intimacy scenes.”

Penn has spoken about requesting fewer sex scenes (© 2022 Netflix, Inc.)

He added: “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?”

The former Gossip Girl actor went on to say: “Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me. It's got to the point where I don't want to do that, so I said ‘my desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero’.”

The former Gossip Girl actor said 'fidelity is important to me' (NETFLIX)

However, Penn went on to acknowledge that he had signed up for the show and signed his name on the dotted line of a contract, noting the steamy scenes were in the ‘DNA of the concept’ of You.

He continued: “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.”

Penn married wife Domino in 2017 (Instagram)

Penn married his wife Domino in 2017, in two ceremonies attended by famous pals Debra Messing, Mariska Hargitay and Zac Posen.

It comes after You fans have gone wild for the teaser trailer for the second part of the show, which hints at the return of a legendary character.

In the latest clip, Joe's late wife Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) could be seen briefly smiling at Joe inside one of his glass boxes and fans have been left wondering what it means.

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