Yahoo News Penn Badgley feared Netflix’s You “could have been really irresponsible”
Note: this article contains spoilers from season one of You.
You star Penn Badgley has admitted he feared that the Netflix show "could have been really irresponsible".
The series has stoked some controversy after some fans' responses over main character Joe Goldberg (Badgley), with many expressing sympathy towards him despite him being a murderous stalker.
The actor has now spoken about his initial fears about whether the show could end up being problematic.
"On one hand," Badgley told GQ, "no one in any position of authority could ever try to act as though we don’t know that sex and murder sells, but how can it work in a different way we’ve not seen?
"That’s where I think this show does something that none of us could have said for certain that we would nail. It could have been really irresponsible. It could have fallen flat and been like, whoa."
Reflecting on his Gossip Girl character Dan Humphrey, he continued: "Up until this role, everybody thought I was such a nice guy. And it’s great to be a nice guy, but the kind of nice guy that makes 'nice guy' an insult – that's actually not a nice guy.
"I think that's what frustrated me. Lo and behold, I play somebody who's not a nice guy, and that everybody loves. We don't like Dan Humphrey. We like Chuck Bass. We like Joe Goldberg. So in a sense, what do you expect?"
Badgley added: "But we should always appreciate the audience's intelligence. This is what I probably didn't do well in Gossip Girl. In Gossip Girl, I was far too judgmental of everything that was happening, because I was young.
"If anything, this show's saving grace is that we're not even trying to act like we're not doing this. We're doing this. We're going to take you with us, and we're going to kill her at the end. No lying to ourselves here. I think, somehow, that's what works about it."
You is streaming now on Netflix.
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