Every time Penn Badgley has outright said he absolutely hates Joe Goldberg

Joe Goldberg is an awful, awful person. You can’t argue otherwise, because despite our weird obsessions with him, he is a serial killer and stalker. But there’s one person who openly hates Joe Goldberg more than anyone else – and that’s Penn Badgley himself.

Penn Badgley has been playing Joe Goldberg from the very start, so it’s safe to say he knows the character better than anyone. He’s the one who has to read the creepy voiceovers, see the scripts where he’s murdering people all over the place and then he has to turn up at a studio and chop up a prosthetic body all for our viewing entertainment.

Penn has made it no secret he dislikes his character, and unlike us, he’s under no illusions that Joe might actually be a good guy. So here’s every time Penn Badgley has made his feelings about Joe Goldberg very, very clear.

Penn Badgley was unsure about taking the role of Joe Goldberg in the first place

Penn Badgley nearly turned down the role of Joe Goldberg completely, because he was unsure about him as a character. He told Entertainment Weekly: “I didn’t want to do it — it was too much. I was conflicted with the nature of the role. If this is a love story, what is it saying? And then what was key in me wanting to jump on board were my conversations with Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, the creators, and understanding Joe’s humanity. I knew that I would be conflicted about the role from day one till the last day, and that is why they thought I would be good for it, is that I’m not psyched to play somebody of this nature.”

‘Joe is terrible’

Let’s get the niceties out the way, Penn Badgley is one of the only people with no rose-tinted glasses on when it comes to Joe Goldberg. In an interview with Build series, he quite simply said: “Come on guys, Joe is terrible.” He also doesn’t think there’s any coming back for Joe, given everything terrible he has done in the past. “Well, I don’t think redemption for [Joe] is, like, possible,” he told AM to DM. “He’s among the worst.”

He’s quite literally begged us all to stop feeling sorry for Joe

In an interview with Netflix, Penn said: “Obviously Joe is one of the worst people ever. Don’t aspire to be like him, don’t defend him. Ever. Don’t ever defend him. He doesn’t need it.”

“Joe is not actually looking for true love,” he added, speaking with Entertainment Weekly. “He’s not actually a person who just needs somebody who loves him. He’s a murderer. He’s a sociopath. He’s abusive. He’s delusional. And he’s self-obsessed.”

Oh, and Penn Badgley said Joe Goldberg needs death and tbh, yeah

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, which was basically all about reminding viewers not to thirst over Joe, Penn literally just said that his character deserves to die. That’s all.

Penn also takes no prisoners with people who ask about their weird obsessions and thirst with Joe

‘I don’t enjoy him’

Penn added that there’s not much he likes about Joe Goldberg as a person, which is pretty fair. “There’s a lot I don’t enjoy about him,” he told Digital Spy. “To be honest, I don’t enjoy nearly everything about him.”

In one clip, Penn Badgley literally said ‘Fuck Joe’ so I don’t think his opinion could be much clearer

There’s not really much to add here.

Penn is very aware that Joe Goldberg and Love Quinn have a pretty awful dynamic

Oh you think Love and Joe are cute and soulmates because they have a bond over killing people? “They both kill people, okay?!” Penn said. “HOW could that be true love?” Points were made.

And Penn is pretty pissed off about what Joe Goldberg has done to his Wiki page

In an interview with Esquire, Penn Badgley is made aware that his Wikipedia page once read that he is an actor “who is known for his portrayals of villainous and ‘off-putting’ characters.” He’s pretty livid, naturally. But it looks like the page has been changed since. Later in the same interview he describes Joe as “disgusting and unwatchable”.

There’s also this time when Penn Badgley called Joe Goldberg a prick! Classic!

Speaking of how Joe decides to spare Love at the end of season two because she says she is pregnant, Penn says: “Why do you value that human life? Because it’s yours? You prick.” Penn laughs this comment off afterwards, but like, it’s true and we all know it.

‘He’s a fucking murderer’

King of saying it how it is, it’s Penn Badgley in an interview with Vanity Fair, when he quite simply says: “We can’t lead ourselves to believe that if Joe would simply find the right person that he would be happy — because he’s a fucking murderer.” He then goes on to call Joe a dick, and says “Joe, I’ve never liked you less! I’ve never liked you less.” Later in the interview he called playing a character like Joe “routinely exhausting”.

No lies were told.

All three seasons of YOU are available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, quizzes, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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Featured image via Netflix and Entertainment Tonight via YouTube.