Penn Badgley Explains Why People Are So Attracted To His ‘You’ Character

Penn Badgley has opened up about why so many people are attracted to his character in Netflix’s ‘You’ and his theory actually makes a lot of sense.

During an interview on The Today Show, he explained that a lot of viewers have mixed feelings about Joe Goldberg and that some of them can not only halfway ~understand~ some of his actions but are actively rooting for him throughout the series.

"The whole point is he's meant to garner a conflicted reaction," he said. "I don't see him as a portrayal of a real person, I see him as a representation of the part of us that identifies with him. 

As for why we’re so invested in his story, Penn added that we might actually see ourselves in his character: “The part of us that is a troll; that part of us that is victim blaming; the part of us that is privileged and blind. We're meant to identify with him."

What’s also interesting about Joe is that he isn’t exactly the smoothest serial killer on record and that social-media just makes it easier for him to explore the darkest aspects of his personality. 

“The whole point is that Joe is actually not a mastermind. He's actually, in some ways, extremely average," he added. 

“It's this really interesting thing where you're seeing the trajectory of a soul, of a man and he's just completely obsessive and compulsive and believing that he's operating by the logic of a true romantic."