Penn Badgley reveals the menacing ‘superhuman ability’ he got playing Joe Goldberg in YOU

Penn Badgley has detailed the “superhuman ability” he picked up from playing Joe Goldberg on Netflix’s YOU, and I’m sorry to say it might just make people love him more.

He might have started as the boy next door, Dan Humphrey, in Gossip Girl, but in 2025, Penn Badgley is largely known for one role: Joe Goldberg. He’s played the sinister serial killer since 2018, and while he’s never shied away from sharing his overall dislike for the character, we simply can’t get enough.

After playing the same character for nearly eight years, you’re bound to pick up a few of that character’s traits and quips. Thankfully, Penn is not opening a bookstore or offering intellectualised monologues about the state of modern dating, but that isn’t to say he hasn’t gained new “superhuman” abilities from his time inside the head of a BookTok protagonist.

Penn Badgley has more Joe Goldberg in him than he thinks

Penn Badgley has never tried to hide how much he despises Joe Goldberg as a person, not that any of us seem to listen. Nonetheless, after eight years of strapping on a baseball cap and stalking a variety of women, Joe left him with a parting gift.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Penn detailed how he can now go without blinking for a concerning amount of time. It was one of Joe Goldberg’s signature looks – that and saying YOU every other sentence – so it seems the killer is always going to be with Penn Badgley.

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“Joe is nothing if not a starer,” he said in the interview. “And now, like, I could stare forever. Sometimes I develop a superhuman ability to really not blink, and then blinking becomes a choice. You just become aware of like, everything. Every little thing you do, it’s like a choice.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Penn further unpacked Joe’s menacing gaze, how he “shifts” from the white knight he so desperately wants to be to the dark persona he actually is.

“He shifts from friendly and charming to very dark and menacing. The shift is returning to a natural state. It is, I suppose, just the removal of a mask,” he said.

That gaze could be traced back to season one when the idea of Joe wearing a “mask” first took form.

“Joe’s stalking her in the house preposterously, like he’s really close to her,” he added. “At some point, he’s underneath a bed, and the entire time, he’s got an eye swollen shut, a gash on his forehead, and swollen lip bruises and dried blood all over, so I felt like I was wearing a mask.”

Now I just need one of those 12-hour YouTube loops of Joe – sorry – Penn staring at the camera.

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

Featured image credit: Entertainment Weekly/Netflix