Actor Penn Badgley is “horrified” by his murderous You character Joe.
The former Gossip Girl star admits playing the stalker in the hit Netflix thriller for two seasons has taken its toll.
“Playing Joe is not this terribly enjoyable experience,” he tells Variety of the role, which calls for him to portray a character obsessed with a new woman each season.
Showrunner Sera Gamble tells the publication that “part of the reason Penn does such a beautiful job playing Joe is because as a person, he is so horrified by him. He’s deeply uncomfortable with roughly 96 percent of everything in every script.”
Another element of filming the series that proved off putting was the location, while season one was filmed in New York, the newest episodes, which debuted on Wednesday (25Dec19), were shot in Los Angeles.
Badgley notes that working on the West Coast was “even more isolating because there was literally more space, so it’s almost like the void that he stares into represents the void in himself that he’s terrified of.”
“It maybe became more oppressive,” he adds. “He is a little bit of an oppressive character, if not extremely, and there’s something I experience of that when playing him.”
But the 33 year old found it helpful to escape the show’s set on his days off.
He adds, “So just privately, the weekends were refuge, because I was able to live in L.A. like a normal human. It was really refreshing sometimes.”
