Penn Badgley, portraying Joe in Netflix's 'You,' insisted on wearing minimal clothing during the series finale to emphasize his character's primal and predatory nature. He faced opposition from the director and writers, who preferred to use a tank top to visually depict the progression of blood, sweat, and dirt during a critical scene. Badgley argued that Joe's vulnerability and lack of adornment would better highlight the character's true, unsettling nature as an abuser and manipulator. The creative team eventually agreed, allowing Joe to wear only black boxers in the intense confrontation with Bronte. This decision was intended to strip away Joe's usual palatable facade, presenting him as a raw and dangerous figure at the show's climax.

Penn Badgley argued for his character Joe to be in a state of undress during the series finale of 'You,' believing it would highlight Joe's raw, animalistic nature and expose him as a predator.

The show's creative team, including director Lee Toland Krieger and writers Neil Reynolds and Michael Foley, initially resisted the idea, preferring to use a tank top to show the progression of blood and sweat.

Badgley felt that Joe's lack of clothing should not be sexualized but should serve to strip away the character's palatable facade, revealing his true predatory nature.

Eventually, Badgley successfully convinced the team, leading to Joe wearing only black boxers during the pivotal scene where he attempts to murder Bronte.

Badgley emphasized the importance of Joe's vulnerability and primal state as crucial to the character's development, and he prepared for the physically demanding scenes by doing burpees between takes.

The actor also altered his vocal performance to avoid the seductive baritone, aiming to strip Joe of his charming and powerful facade, making his aggression more jarring.

This creative choice was intended to bring the audience face-to-face with Joe's true, unadorned nature, as close as possible to the unsettling reality of his character.

Penn Badgley is revealing new details about the series finale of You.

The 38-year-old You actor, who plays Joe in the Netflix show, got candid in a new interview with EW about creative differences on the set leading up to the show’s ending.

The episode’s director, Lee Toland Krieger, and writers Neil Reynolds and Michael Foley,”really resisted” the idea of Joe being only in his underwear during the finale’s final showdown between Joe and Bronte (Madeline Brewer).

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“It was probably the only time I’ll ever fight to be in a state of undress,” he said.

“I was like, ‘No, he’s gotta be.’”

The show’s creatives didn’t agree.

“Funnily enough, the writers and the director — the director in particular, Lee — they really resisted this idea that he would be in his underwear,” he said.

“And I don’t remember exactly why. I think it was partly, like, they wanted the tank top on to show the progression of blood and sweat and dirt throughout the sequence. Which I get, practically speaking.”

Ultimately, Penn got his way, as Joe wore only a pair of black boxers as he stalked Bronte through the woods before attempting to murder her.

“My hat was really off to Penn as we were filming the finale,” co-showrunner Justin W. Lo said.

“Unlike some actors, he just was like, ‘I just need to be awful. Can we see him punch her? Can I not have my shirt? Can I just be as awful and animalistic as possible?’ As opposed to sometimes you have an actor’s instincts for that character to be loved or protected and this and that. Which aren’t always wrong, but in this case, Penn was very much right on.”

“We didn’t want [Bronte] to be too naked and vulnerable, because that wouldn’t have felt right, but Joe needed to be naked and vulnerable,” Penn explained. “Which is also, weirdly, his most powerful state, because he’s an abuser and a manipulator and he coerces women through seduction.”

He also said it was imperative that Joe’s lack of clothing wasn’t “sexualized” in any way, but rather used to highlight the character’s more primal side, removing “all of the adornments that have kept him palatable” in the series.

“He needed to be as dangerously close to visually becoming the sexual predator he’s always been,” he said. “We need to see him and her as close as we can get to what you really don’t want to see, so that we really finally see him for who he is.”

“[I] wanted him to be as animalistic as he could be within the appropriate confines of the form,” he explained. “He still is Joe, but hopefully we are seeing new dimensions to him at his end.”

“One of his last moments — where he’s saying, ‘You want to know how I killed Beck? I’ll show you’ — it’s minor, and I don’t know that other people would experience it the way I did, but I thought it was important to not be in the deep, gravelly baritone,” Penn said of his performance. “Because that is even a tool to perform a masculinity that is seductive and powerful. But there, I think, even the voice was just stripped of its charms for a moment.”

He also ended up doing “a lot of burpees” in between takes.

“He’s meant to be out of breath, he’s bleeding, he’s sweating, he’s got this mortal kind of adrenaline coursing through his veins,. So for two weeks, it was just [me] in the woods at night, in my underwear, just exhausting myself. It was just physically taxing, which is also a satisfying experience as an actor,” he said.

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