You director told Penn Badgley to 'stop that' during masturbation scene that was originally even creepier

Although a lot of viewers have romanticised his obsessive antics, Penn Badgley's character in You is a straight up creep.

The protagonist of the popular Netflix series might be a charmer and easy on the eyes, but at the end of the day, Joe Goldberg is not a good guy.

The actor who plays the former bookstore clerk couldn't agree more - hence why he was keen to ensure a scene showing him perv on his co-star wasn't 'sexily' done.

Instead, Badgley wanted the moment to reflect just how unhinged his character is...but he did that good of a job at it, the director had to ask him to tone it down a touch.

Sadly, when the next season of You drops this spring, that's the last we will be seeing of Goldberg - as the creators of the psychological thriller series said they 'always conceived it as a five season journey'.

The ten new episodes, which are scheduled to be released on 24 April, are sure to be brimming with more romance and murder than ever before.

But don't get your hopes up for a load of sexy scenes too, as Badgley previously revealed he asked his bosses to dial back the amount of intimate moments in the show.

The 38-year-old explained that he asked to bring the sex factor down from '100 to zero' out of respect for his wife Domino Kirke, who he married in 2017 and shares a son with.

Hopefully, that might also mean that Badgley has been able to dodge shooting some salacious solo scenes for season five, too.

Throughout You, his character spends a lot of time with his hands down his pants doing you know what.

Penn Badgley played the part of a creep a bit too well (Netflix)

This isn't supposed to get viewers hearts racing, as it's meant to show just how freaky Goldberg is - and not in the good sense of the word.

It turns out the Gossip Girl star is disturbingly skilled at pretending to be a peeping tom who masturbates out on the street - so much so, that director Lee Toland Krieger asked him to rein it in.

During an appearance on the Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend podcast in January 2023, Badgley discussed how You had made him 'famous for masturbating' as soon as the pilot aired.

In the first ever episode of the show, Goldberg's object of obsession is Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) - and after finding out where she lives, he follows her home to have a nosy.

He watches her have sex with someone while lurking in a doorway across the street, before she then goes onto pleasure herself while her stalker has got a front row seat.

In his mind, Goldberg's in the room with Beck, but in reality, he's going to town on his todger in the middle of a quiet street in New York City.

Krieger had to give him some notes for the masturbation scene in the pilot episode of You (Netflix)

Interestingly, this was filmed on the first street which Badgley ever lived on after he moved to the Big Apple, which only added to the 'surreality' he felt while shooting it.

"I was very much at home - but now, surrounded by a film crew at like 11pm at night," the Easy A actor said. "By the way, keep in mind, [I'm] not looking at anything real. I'm looking at an X, a tape mark."

As I'm sure you can appreciate, he found pretending to pleasure himself while staring at this marker as though it was Beck to be extremely 'awkward'.

Badgley continued: "One of the things that I struggled with a lot when I first took the role was, I don't want to lean away from the horrific aspects of this person.

"It's hard not to glorify almost anything you see on camera, so I'm just going to be conscious of that.

"I was doing it and there were two things that I did that were...I don't know what happened and I don't remember what they used, so it may not be this way in the show.

Badgley went on: "I was like, 'I'm going to be very slow and I am not going to f***ing blink'."

That was until Krieger trotted over to him and said: "You can't do that anymore."

Recalling the awkward conversation, Badgley continued: "He's like, 'Hey so...I think we're going to have to get you to close your eyes'..

"I was already very conscious of not wanting to be like sexily masturbating outside on the street. He kills her at the end...spoiler alert. But it's weird! It's very intense to play this person.

"I don't remember anybody telling me to speed up, but I think I just did because it just felt so weird to be going so slow. They used what they used, whatever. You can go back and watch whatever it is, I don't remember what it is."

For those wondering...his eyes were very much wide open - and they nearly popped out of his head when an elderly woman exits the building he is stood in front of.

Viewers have never seen someone zip up their fly so fast.