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Penn Badgley insists You doesn't glamorise serial killers

The actor said it is an interesting conversation

Actor Penn Badgley attends the Lifetime series
Penn Badgley says You doesn't glamorise serial killers. (Invision/AP)

Penn Badgley has insisted his hit Netflix series You doesn't glamorise serial killers.

The actor, 36, stars as sinister murderer Joe Goldberg in the psychological thriller, which has returned for a fourth series.

He was quizzed about it on This Morning, with host Holly Willoughby saying some fans online joke that they'd like him to stalk them or kidnap them.

Read more: Penn Badgley reflects on the Breaking Bad role he almost landed: 'The one that got away'

"It has come under criticism sometimes for sort of glamorising these things," she noted.

"Of course," replied the actor, adding: "We take the criticism, I'll take the criticism.

"I think to me it is an interesting conversation because we are a show that is exploring on one hand why we are so drawn to power as, like, an abuse in a way.

"And I don't just mean physical, I mean the abuse of power, that's a dynamic and that's something that we are evidently drawn to as a culture.

"And then again I think because it's not meant to be that clinical portrait of a serial killer, to me it is more of an allegory."

Penn Badgley as killer Joe in You. (Netflix)
Penn Badgley as killer Joe in You. (Netflix)

"We have made him (Joe) charming for a reason," he went on.

"I don't feel personally that we are like, glamorising actual serial killers. But we are doing it in a climate of that."

The former Gossip Girl star also said the show is "exploring the sort of love that we have seen depicted in other shows I've been in".

You. (L to R) Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg, Stephen Hagan as Malcolm in episode 401 of You. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022
Penn Badgley is back as Joe Goldberg for a fourth series. (Netflix)

"It's in that wheelhouse much more than true crime to me," he said.

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"It's using the palette of true crime, because that's what people love to watch."

You started in 2018, starring Badgley as a book shop manager who develops a fixation on a woman.

Watch: You Season 4's Penn Badgley on the trials of filming underwater