Penn Badgley opens up about the fifth and final season of Netflix’s hit series You, his mixed feelings about saying goodbye to Joe Goldberg, and why he won’t be playing a serial killer again anytime soon.Badgley reflects on the intense physical and emotional demands of playing a psychopath, and the aspects of the character he’s more than ready to leave behind. He also shares some of the most unhinged — and at times unsettling — fan reactions the show has sparked, and some of the more memorable interactions he’s had since the series first began.
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00:00He might fall in love with me and then want to kill me.
00:02I mean, firstly, I'm so glad that you're not wearing a baseball cap
00:05or I might not have seen you there.
00:07Yeah, I would just blend in with a brick.
00:09So you is back. Can you believe it's been five seasons?
00:13Well, I can because it's been almost eight years.
00:16So sometimes I'm like, is it six? Is it seven?
00:20No, no, no, no, five.
00:21Yeah, but it's wild that it's over.
00:22It has certainly been a wild ride.
00:24What are you going to miss about playing Joe Goldberg
00:27and what are you not going to miss?
00:30It'd be easy to say, I don't miss anything.
00:32F that guy.
00:33But I'm turning over a new leaf. I'm not going to say that.
00:35I will miss the athleticism, and that might surprise you.
00:41Joe is a highly physical character to play.
00:44You know, if he's talking a lot, he's often raging or lying.
00:48One of those two things, which is a bodily, it's a very bodily endeavor.
00:56He's also often running. He's also often being beaten.
01:00He's often, you know, scrambling and just trying to chop up a body.
01:04And it's just, you know, the hijinks and the serious task it is to ground some of the intensity,
01:12you know, the evilness, the rage, the hatred.
01:17It's actually a very physical role, which is a gift as an actor.
01:21It's really nice to go to work and to have to do that, you know.
01:24I will miss that. I really will miss that.
01:27At heart, I am a normal guy.
01:32What's so dangerous about Joe is his ability to present himself as a nice guy.
01:37And I think that's what the show plays on really well.
01:40Yeah.
01:40You know, he's kind of seen as, like, the perfect man with the slight hiccup that he is a serial murderer.
01:48But this character does get so romanticized, something that you're obviously no stranger to.
01:52The thing about Joe is that, yes, he's a killer and it is serial.
01:56But that's not, you know, if you think of, like, a clinical portrait of a real serial killer, Joe is not that.
02:02Joe is more an embodiment of all of our misconceptions around love, like the modern mythology of, like, a romantic icon.
02:09That's what he is.
02:10He's the way we've imbibed, you know, the three-minute version of love, like in a pop song or in the 30-minute version in a show or 48-minute version.
02:22You know, he's really not what we've done is created a serial killer, but more of that.
02:30You know, he's like, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's many tropes followed to their logical end, which you then realize is like, oh, that's, yeah, that's not love, is it, at all?
02:41That, that behavior that we sort of celebrate as being loving.
02:46Do you think if Joe met you and Badgley, what do you think would be going on in his eternal monoply?
02:53Actually, let's see, actually.
02:55Um, he might fall in love with me and then want to kill me.
02:59Would you be, you'd be in danger?
03:02I'm trying to really think about this.
03:04Um, anybody's in danger around Joe, right?
03:10Because he's also like, it's not like he's the most lethal man, his body's a weapon, but he's just, he bumbles about and then people start dying.
03:17You know, everybody's in danger.
03:19I mean, the kill count, the kill count as of end of season four was 18?
03:23Is that, is that what it is?
03:25It's 18 at the end of season four.
03:27And no spoilers, but, you know, that does climb a little bit further into it.
03:31I love that we always act like, like, him killing people is a spoiler.
03:37It's the premise of the show.
03:39As for you, we're not done with each other yet.
03:43What are some of the most unhinged man interactions that you've had?
03:47Like, have people asked you to say or do crazy things?
03:51You know, sometimes people will say unironically.
03:53Like, women, if there's a typical kind of response, there's one which is the unironic, like, no, he really loves, truly, and I really wish I had that.
04:08Or for men, you know, the slightly more troubling, like, Joe is my spirit animal.
04:13I've gotten that a number of times.
04:15And I, and, you know, I know that that man isn't saying, like, yeah, I want to kill people and, like, abuse and manipulate.
04:20So I, so I'm actually, if there's time in that kind of interaction, what I wish I could do is be like, well, hold on, what do you mean?
04:29Like, when you say spirit animal, like, which part is it his dedication?
04:34Like, I feel you there.
04:35Like, what, is it his, yeah, his tenacity?
04:38Is it that he's got the amazing, like, what is your, maybe it could be that.
04:43You want us to kill everyone who's suspicious of us for the rest of our lives.
04:47Is that so wrong?
04:48If it's for the right reasons.