Penn Badgley: Controversy over his refusal to act sex scenes!

Updated On March 18, 2024 | Published By: shahid | In controversy , Relationship

American actor, Penn Badgley fueled a controversy and social media debate earlier this year when he expressed in an interview about his refusal now to do sex scenes on screen. What was the reason of this refusal? How did his fans react to his admission?

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Penn Badgley and his revelation on sex scenes

The fourth season of the serial killer show “You” on Netflix launched in February 2023. During this launch, Penn Badgley who acts in this series revealed to Variety magazine that he has now refused to act in any of the sex scenes on the show. Penn said:

“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 added:

“It’s important to me in my real life to not have them,”
“My fidelity in my relationship. It’s important to me. And actually, [sex scenes] was one of the reasons that I initially wanted to turn the role down [in ‘You’]. I didn’t tell anybody that. But that is why.”

Response from show viewers on social media

The response to Penn’s admission about not wanting to do sex scenes on screen was mixed on social media. Many of them criticized the actor for it. These viewers felt that it was wrong on part of Penn to equate sex scenes with real sex. The two are different and every actor should be able to act these scenes in films or TV series.

These critics also reminded Penn and others that there are intimacy coordinators present in Hollywood who manage these scenes smoothly. Hence, the sexual acts are safe during the filming process. The social media users felt that Penn should not refuse these scenes because they are part of acting.

Later, in a new interview given to GQ magazine, Penn addressed these responses of his critics. He said that this backlash was uncalled for and had been blown out of proportion. Penn commented:

“What I was speaking about wasn’t actually the final product,”
“It was sort of like the culture inherent to the production of all movies, but particularly those scenes. It’s like, look, we know that Hollywood has had a history of flagrant exploitation and abuse.”

How did Penn put across his point?

Initially, Penn was nervous to discuss this aspect with the show’s showrunner Sera Gamble. He replied:

“It was not easy. It was easy because of Sera’s response, and I felt relieved. But technically speaking, if I thought I’d had the ability to set that boundary earlier, I would have. We shall see if setting that boundary, of course, has any ramifications. Just simply, it does limit the number of projects you can be a part of.”

Penn is married and his wife’s name is Domino Kirke, 39. She is a singer and the two started dating in 2014. On 27 February 2017, the couple did a court marriage in New York. Their son, James, arrived in 2020 in the month of August. Domino has a son from her previous relationship with musician, Morgan O’Kane. This child was born in 2009.

Prior to this marriage, Penn was dating Blake Lively from 2007 to 2010. And he had a relationship with actress Zoë Kravitz from 2011 to 2013.

Short bio on Penn Badgley

Penn Badgley is an American actor. More bio…

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