Penn Badgley wasn’t feeling so hot while filming sex scenes for You — but he definitely was bothered!
In the new book Crushmore: Essays on Love, Loss, and Coming-of-Age, the 38-year-old got candid in an essay where he chatted about filming a sex scene for Netflix‘s You. In an excerpt for Vulture, the actor talks about how letting the audience in on something so intimate — you know, since he had to stare right into the camera for this particular scene — was SO not as sexy as the end result!
We mean, if you’ve seen any thirst edits of Joe Goldberg, you’ve definitely seen this part over and over again. But filming it was extremely awkward, according to Penn. TOTAL spoiler alerts ahead, btw!
In the essay, the Gilmore Girls alum recalled:
“We’re shooting a fantasy sequence and as a stylistic choice, one that makes a lot of sense, the director has chosen to place the camera directly in front of my face. My character is meant to be humpin’ on his wife, with whom he has become not only bored but also contemptuous, so he is imagining he’s having sex with a librarian he’s been flirting with, and whom he will later attempt to kill (if you haven’t seen the show, believe it or not, that actually isn’t a spoiler because he does this every single time, and if you haven’t recognized that by the third season, I’m sorry for your loss).”
He continued:
“What this means for me, practically speaking, is that the director wants a close-up of my face as my character Joe is deep in dissociative reverie mid-coitus. The camera, a very large apparatus weighing just about seven hundred pounds — lovely coincidence — does not allow space for itself and my scene partner (Victoria Pedretti, who brilliantly played Love in seasons 3 and 4 of You, and who is more beloved than I am by many fans of the show).”
And since Victoria Pedretti wasn’t there to soften the mood… Well, things got awkward fast!
Related: Glen Powell Talks SUPER AWKWARD Encounter With Canceled Movie Star!
Penn said he had to do this completely solo — with ALL eyes on him:
“If anyone or anything has to go, it won’t be the camera; it will be my scene partner who sits this one out. This means that rather than simulating sex with her and looking at her while the camera watches us together, I’m going to have to simulate sex by myself, effectively humpin’ on the air, on a fake bed in a fake room, surrounded by a film crew. Oh, and I’ll be in the same nude thong I’ve been wearing all morning as we complete the scene, of course.”
He went on to say he got the news from director Silver Tree that the camera would be the only thing he’d be working with, and even though he felt hesitant about giving that sort of POV footage, he bit the bullet and powered through. He hilariously added:
“Not only will I be humping the air with the camera in my face, but I’m going to be looking straight down the barrel of the lens, something I reflexively never do. You never let a mean girl know you’re look- ing. Looking in camera ruins a take. Looking in camera is crossing a great metaphysical threshold because you’ve acknowledged the audience. The spell so delicately, exhaustively, extravagantly cast is broken with only a glance — unless, in rare circumstances, it works. This is one of those rare circumstances, made rarer by the fact that I will be simulating sex with the camera and, by proxy, the audience. For me, it would be truly naive to not consider now, even briefly, that — like so many other moments captured of me performing on this show — this one may very well become a meme.”
LOLz!
He had to break the number one filming rule and become a meme while doing it! Oh no!
Penn goes on to describe the set and the camera setup as his “pretend lover for the next ten to fifteen minutes”. He also quips on how everyone is standing around him, staring at him, while he has to get ready to “get on all fours” and shoot the scene. Talking about how the filming actually went, he said:
“The time has come for me to hump. ‘Action.’ Silver’s delivery is, possibly, more delicate than mine will be. I’m not home, but I can imagine that I am. There is no one in front of me, but I can imagine someone is. A moment ago there was only resistance in my body to do what was needed, but upon the utterance of one word — action — I am supremely present in the face of sheer absurdity. I look in camera. And I hump my ass off.”
Ha!
Absolutely nothing sexy or charming about that. Which, sex scenes usually aren’t when they’re being filmed… We’ve been hearing it from actors for ages. Most of the time, things are just very professional if not a little tense. But Penn is over here giving awkward a new meaning!
Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments (below).
[Image via Call Her Daddy/Netflix/YouTube]
The post Penn Badgley Exposes How Awkward & Unsexy Filming A <i>You</i> Sex Scene Really Was! appeared first on Perez Hilton.