Penn Badgely 'glad' You ended due to 'similarities' with Netflix stalker (2025)

The actor said playing the enraged serial killer was unsustainable

Penn Badgley has shared the "similarities" he found between himself and his on-screen character, Joe Goldberg, the prolific serial killer and stalker in the hit thriller You.

The 38-year-old Gossip Girl star said he's "really glad" the series is ending at season 5, reflecting on the lessons he's learned from his character Joe Goldberg.

Playing Goldberg, for Badgley, was a form of "exercise in understanding all the things I want to avoid". He outlined some "obvious" boundaries like: "Don't kill, don't manipulate, don't be a predator."

Despite finding it uncomfortable to embody such a toxic persona, Badgley believes he could have shared the same fate as his character.

He admitted: "My 30s have been officially defined by him. It's possible that [Goldberg has] made me a better person because he's caused a lot of reflection."

Badgley told The Guardian he was relieved to part ways with Goldberg following the show's final season. He said: "It's a politically intensifying world, and I don't think this show would make sense starting right now.

"It's ending right now. The way this show plays with questions of how we reward bad people, that was a more playful question eight-to-10 years ago."

He referenced the social shift to moralising entertainment: "It's not as playful a question now, and it comes with way more stakes, and I'm glad we're not going to be playing with it any longer. And for that reason, I'm really glad it's ending.

Discussing his process, he said: "What I've had to do is try to understand, in some manner, where these things come from. I've found similarities, and had to understand how it could have been possible for me to end up that way, rather than the way that I am."

Discussing the core of the popular show, the actor said: "Ultimately, the show is about misconceptions or modern myths about love and about masculinity.

"I've been reflecting on love and what that means, and what it means to be a man and a father and a husband, [while] all these things were starting to happen to me in real life as well. "

The show's antagonist has garnered a concerning level of fan admiration, a trend that Badgley has previously described as concerning.

He said: "That's what I've been trying to understand," reflecting on the broader cultural implications of storytelling in today's world.

"I think we all have to wonder how much value is there in exploring the darker side of human nature. I do think we need to explore the light' side, and I don't mean 'light' in a way that is thin or has less gravity."

Badgley also shared his personal encounter with his character, Goldberg's intense fury, saying: "It was as though I couldn't sustain the rage any more, couldn't sustain the levels of artifice with him, just all of it."