Penn Badgley reveals why he removed his ban on x-rated scenes for the final season of YOU

After years of standing firm on his anti-sex scene stance, Penn Badgley has recanted his earlier statements by finally getting down and dirty in the fifth and final season of Netflix’s YOU.

Penn Badgley’s position on sex scenes has long been a controversial topic of debate, after all, x-rated moments are a natural part of human existence and pop culture. Ahead of YOU season four, he asked showrunner Sera Gamble to limit the number of cheeky moments.

“I asked Sera Gamble, ‘Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?’ This was actually a decision I had made before I took the show. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it publicly, but one of the main things is, Do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always the romantic lead?” he said.

“Fidelity in every relationship — especially in a marriage — is important to me. It got to a point where [I thought], ‘I don’t want to do that,’ so I said to Sera, like, ‘My desire would be zero [sex scenes], to go from 100 to zero.'”

In a later interview, he even said that Hollywood’s focus on sex scenes was “disturbing to me” because he’s more often than not considerably older than his co-stars. Still, YOU season five is a different monster, and this time around, Penn was holding nothing back – here’s why.

Penn Badgley has some steamy sex scenes in this season of YOU

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While I completely understand Penn Badgley’s position on sex scenes, and the fact that he wants us to hate Joe Goldberg as much as him, I’m not going to pretend for even a moment that I wasn’t somewhat pleased to see him get his kit off.

“I had to throw that out the window,” he recently told PEOPLE, referencing his ban on YOU sex scenes in earlier seasons.

Ultimately, Penn didn’t want to cram sex scenes into the show for the sake of it. He wanted them to feel authentic and “important”, and the ones in season five certainly fit the bill.

“That was the question again. All right, what am I willing to do?” he explained. “And as I always said, I said, my desire is that least as possible, but if it’s necessary, that’s the show we all sign up to make. So, let’s make sure it’s vital, let’s make sure it’s important, it’s deliberate. And we did.”

Sad that it’s over, but very much pleased we get one final dose of Penn Badgley’s chest.

Season five of YOU is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, quizzes, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Netflix