Penn Badgley Had to Make His 'You' Masturbation Scenes 'Less Creepy'

On the latest episode of his Stitcher "Podcrushed" podcast with co-hosts Sophie Ansari and Nava Kavelin, the actor sat down for a virtual chat with former Gossip Girl co-star, Chace Crawford, to reminiscence on the past and talk about their current projects. And as part of this conversation, the two ended up talking about the importance of having on-set intimacy coordinators — who ensure the emotional, physical and mental safety of actors — for Crawford's sea creature sex scenes on The Boys.

However, the already-spicy discussion got even more salacious once they began talking about Badgley's own experience with these kinds of scenes on Netflix's You, where he apparently gets some pretty interesting feedback from the director.

Despite Joe being an obsessive stalker, Badgley revealed that he's been asked several times about whether he's ever tried to make these scenes "romantic," which elicited an emphatic no from the star.

"Every time I've done a masturbation scene — which is so far every season at least once — I've always gotten the note to make it less creepy," Badgley confessed, before asking why they'd do that, seeing as how his character is inherently disconcerting.

"They say like, 'Close your eyes or go faster or go slower,'" he continued. "I'm like, 'What? This man is fucking murdering people, and he's masturbating in the street. You're saying I'm making it creepy? How is it I'm the one making it creepy?'"

He added, "I just remember I wouldn't close my eyes and the director came up to me. He was like 'Buddy, I think you gotta close your eyes.'" Eeek.

Watch a video recording of Badgley and Crawford's "Podcrushed" episode below.

Photo via Getty / Cindy Ord