The latest season of You missed certain co-star for Penn Badgley’s (Gossip Girl, Easy A) Joe Goldberg. According to Deadline, actress and activist Jameela Jamil (The Good Place, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) revealed she almost auditioned for the thriller series. She was set to audition as one of the rich British friends in Goldberg’s circle but dropped out of the vetting due to the sex scenes. Jamil detailed her reasoning for this on Badgely’s Popcrushed podcast along with co-hosts Nava Kavelin (Glimpses Into the Spirit of Gender Equality) and Sophie Ansari.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been someone who would have enjoyed objectifying myself, personally. But that’s also because I have so much deep, like, childhood sexual trauma stuff. So I think that was never in the cards for me,” Jamil explained to Badgley. She continued and revealed sex scenes in roles are a boundary for her.
“In fact, I was supposed to audition for the most recent season of your show,” Jamil told Badgley via Deadline. “My character was supposed to be quite sexy, and I pulled out of the audition, because I am so shy about anything sexy that I can’t. And then you fucking came out and was like, ‘yeah, I’m not doing sex scenes anymore’. And I was like, I didn’t even know that was a boundary that we could draw. But then I was like, I should have gone and done the fucking show.”
This past season, Badgley made headlines for revealing he requested that his character – the tortured loverboy-turned-stalker serial killer, Joe – no longer partake in sex scenes. He had cited it as something that almost made him initially turn down the role.
“It’s not a place where I’ve blurred lines,” he told Variety in an interview. “There’s almost nothing I could say with more consecration. That aspect of Hollywood has always been very disturbing to me — and that aspect of the job, that mercurial boundary — has always been something that I actually don’t want to play with at all.” He also described how as he’s matured, the fidelity of his relationship with his wife is something he wants to protect.
Netflix’s You aired its fourth season in two parts earlier this year. The streaming platform renewed it for a final fifth season.
All seasons of You are available on Netflix.