Penn Badgley has called out Netflix for people falling in love with serial killers on screen.
The 36-year-old star – who plays fictional murderer Joe Goldberg in ‘You’ on the streaming service – has weighed in on viewers’ fascination with real-life killers featured in TV and movies, with recent projects including Zac Efron as Ted Bundy in ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile’ and Evan Peters’ role in ‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’.
Asked about people’s attraction towards problematic men, he told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “You need to look at that inside.
Now, to be fair, with our show you’re meant to fall in love with him. That’s on us.
“Ted Bundy? That’s on you! Jeffrey Dahmer? That is on you – that is on Netflix,” he doubled down. That is squarely on the shoulders of Netflix.
“I don’t have answers at this point. I do, but they’re long and… yeah, it’s weird, man. That’s what our show is exploring.”
After ‘You’ first aired in 2019, Penn addressed viewers’ attraction to Joe and described the character as “a great cultural touchpoint” to show what still needs to be done.
