Penn Badgley again fans the flames of sex scene discourse

Behold, the sex scene butterfly effect. One actor expresses his own personal opinion about his job, and days later there’s a 12-car pileup of Twitter discourse on the ethics of sex on screen and the relative prudishness of the youth. Penn Badgley’s comments about the intimacy on You just happened to strike the right nerve at the wrong time (or the other way around?). And he’s not finished yet.

“It’s not a place where I’ve blurred lines,” Badgley elaborates on his previous thoughts in a new Variety profile. “There’s almost nothing I could say with more consecration. 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.”

If you’ve remained out of the Twitter fray on this one, you may wonder why Badgley’s personal feelings on this subject have caused such a maelstrom. After all, no performer should feel forced into doing sex scenes—performers shouldn’t be forced into doing anything they don’t want to do. And Badgley is “very practical,” well aware that sex is “coded into the DNA” of his show and perfectly willing to come to a compromise by simply having fewer of those scenes in the fourth season.

So why are his comments sparking such debate? For one thing, some critics feel his characterization of sex scenes as “disturbing” or otherwise untoward reveals a lack of professionalism. Intimacy acting is still acting, and when done in a healthy, communicative manner, shouldn’t be something that blurs lines.

There’s also Badgley’s reasons for not wanting to do sex scenes: “My fidelity in my relationship. It’s important to me. 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.” (Badgley actually credits his wife Domino Kirke-Badgley for encouraging him to take the job on You.)

Some fans praised this perspective, while others protested his equating simulated sex scenes with actual fidelity. The conversation also inevitably became tied up in discourse around how sex and sensuality are depicted on screen. Some people think there’s too much sex in film and television; some think there hasn’t been an era of entertainment this sexless since the Hays Code. It’s the same old song, basically, and Penn Badgley is simply the avatar of its current iteration.

The discourse will spin on with or without the consent of the discourse-ee, but it’s worth mentioning the context within which Badgley made his statements. For one, the sex scenes from You are not exactly loving depictions of healthy relationships. He also notes that he now tends to be older than his romantic interests on the show (“Didn’t used to be the case”), which adds another layer of ick to the situation. Further, he’s already “done a fair amount of them” in his career, and his experiences as a child star put into uncomfortable situations (his first film was The Fluffer, a film about the porn industry, when he was still underage) certainly influenced his views on the subject today.

Unfortunately, he remains the star of this round of debate until the next actor unthinkingly weighs in with a personal preference transposed onto the public, and repeat ad infinitum until the eventual heat death of the universe. Best of luck to the next poor sucker who accidentally wades into these treacherous waters.