Penn Badgley Reiterates His Stance On Sex Scenes In New Interview

Penn Badgley has reiterated his stance on sex scenes, in case you hadn’t heard. 

The actor, star of the Netflix streaming hit You, doubled down on his reasons for wanting less intimate moments with his co-stars in a new interview with Variety. 

“It’s not a place where I’ve blurred lines,” Penn said of the scenes, “having done a fair amount of them in my career.” 

“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 continued, adding that it was also “important to me in my real life to not have them.” 

When the interviewer prodded the former Gossip Girl star to expand on his “real life” comment, Penn explained that he was referring to “fidelity” in his relationship with his wife, the musician and doula Domino Kirke-Badgley.

“My fidelity in my relationship [is] important to me,” Penn said. “And actually, it was one of the reasons that I initially wanted to turn the role down. I didn’t tell anybody that. But that is why.”

He also pointed out to Variety that he is now older than most of his on-screen interests, which “didn’t used to be the case”. 

Penn made similar comments about fidelity during Friday’s episode of his podcast, Podcrushed.

“Fidelity in my — in every relationship, and especially my marriage — is important to me,” he said on his show. “Yeah, it just got to a point where I don’t want to do [those intimacy scenes].”

Penn and Domino began dating in 2014 and tied the knot in a Brooklyn courthouse three years later. The two share one son together, who they welcomed in 2020. 

Domino also has a teenage son, Cassius Riley, from a previous relationship. 

The two revealed more about their relationship – and the funny way they met – in  an October 2022 episode of Penn’s podcast, which you can listen to below: