Penn Badgley says You directors tell him every season to make masturbation scenes 'less creepy'

You star Penn Badgley got some eye-opening advice about how to make his masturbation scenes "less creepy."

During a conversation about the rise of on-set intimacy coordinators on the latest episode of his Stitcher "Podcrushed" podcast, the actor revealed that he's been given the, uh, interesting director's note every time he's filmed a masturbation scene for the Lifetime-turned-Netflix series, in which he plays an obsessive stalker named Joe.

When asked about reports that he's been asked to make those scenes more "romantic," Badgley explained that that's not quite the word he would use. "Every time I've done a masturbation scene — which is so far every season at least once — I've always gotten the note to make it less creepy," he told co-hosts Sophie Ansari and Nava Kavelin and the episode's guest, his former Gossip Girl costar Chace Crawford.

"They say like, 'Close your eyes or go faster or go slower.' I'm like, 'What? This man is f---ing murdering people, and he's masturbating in the street. You're saying I'm making it creepy? How is it I'm the one making it creepy,'" he revealed.

"I just remember I wouldn't close my eyes and the director came up to me," Badgley added. "He was like 'Buddy, I think you gotta close your eyes.'"

Badgley said his immediate reaction to the note is to question "why," and he strongly feels that his character being a creep is entirely "the f---ing point," but ultimately he conceded. "That's just the strange line that we're always walking on our show, and I suppose many of us are, like examining toxicity in sexual culture while also trying to be sexy."

Badgley added that in the moment, he isn't sure how to "parse out" his feelings, and that he does wonder what it would be like to have an intimacy coordinator for those scenes.

"It's strange — you don't think it's going to be that big of a deal. You read it. It's actually kind of funny or it's creepy but it serves the story, it is what it is," Badgley added about masturbation scenes. "And then you discover in front of a crew of people with a camera on your face, knowing that, in all likelihood, millions of people are going to see this, you're simulating masturbation. And I have to say sometimes those scenes are harder than [intimate scenes] with a person because it's just like, all right, this is what I'm doing."

Elsewhere in the episode, Crawford talks about his own intimate scenes with sea creatures on The Boys, and the two reminisce on their Gossip Girl days. Season 4 of You is currently in production, with Joe and his antics heading to London.

Watch video of the podcast above.

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