Penn Badgley Talks 'You' Fans Slut-Shaming Beck, Says Finding Joe Attractive is 'Kind of The Point'

Joe Goldberg is both charming and terrifying in You, and the internet can't decide which is more prominent. Enter Penn Badgley, the brooding actor who plays Joe in the series. He's here to tell you it's alright to find Joe charming since that's the point.

Badgley caught attention last week when he responded to Twitter users asking why they found themselves so captivated by the series's murderer. His responses, joking and sweet, sparked an online conversation about the deadly attraction, as well as a conversation in Badgley's own head about the show's potential.

"In my mind and my delivery, it was so tongue-in-cheek that I was amused," he told Newsweek of the Twitter conversations. "I've been amused by people's reactions, not horrified. And I think we all anticipated a lot of these reactions, to be honest. It's not a surprise that everybody thinks that he's a charming character. That's kind of the point."

You has been loved by viewers but has also received negative attention for the motives of its lead man. Past that, the female lead, Beck (Elizabeth Lail) has been slut-shamed by some for her behavior on the show. Badgley said he and creators expected all of this, and the show is a direct response to the current internet climate's ability to judge.

"Joe is less of a portrayal of a real person who's capable of murder... he's a representation of that part of us that's going to slut-shame Beck when we're watching You," Badgley said. "Joe, in that sense, is more than I ever realized until this moment to be honest. I think Joe really does represent the part of us that wants to like him because of so many social factors."

One specific Twitter conversation was started by user Nobia Parker on January 9. Parker asked why the characters Badgley plays, like on Gossip Girl and You, always break her heart. Badgely dryly responded that they shouldn't because Joe is "a murderer" later that day.

The actor meant his "murderer" comment in jest, but his tweets soon went viral. Headlines said things like, "Penn Badgley doesn't want you to be attracted to his 'You' character," and so on.

Badgley assumed Parker might receive backlash, so he reached out directly. He was right about his assumption. Parker even received threats of real murderers showing up at her home.

"That's exactly what we're talking about here," Badgley said about Parker getting attacked for her comment.

"The funny thing that I find with this is that it continues to be this meta reaction that everybody is having," he said. "It doesn't really stop because it's something we can't tie up in a bow neatly. It's something we're still quite charmed by. And yeah, they cast me and always against my instinct and sometimes my desire, encouraged me to be charming when it was right. Hopefully, what we've done is something that's responsible."

With the depth of Joe's character, sometimes Badgley finds it difficult to enjoy the acting process. He told Newsweek, playing someone as dark as Joe isn't conventionally attractive. "Look, I'm an actor and it is somehow fun to act almost no matter what you're doing, but I think I found that I was testing that limit," Badgley said. "I do think there's something unique about this show in that there is no justice. I think what's responsible to do at this point, given the kind of reaction people are having to it, is to not try and stake a claim. You can't tell people how to feel about it."