You’s Penn Badgley Shares Why He Thinks Fans Love Joe Goldberg So Much – Looper

In a January 2023 episode of “Podcrushed,” Badgley, who has vocally questioned the impact Joe may have on his fans, spoke about his character with a reflective sort of nuance. Though he usually defaults to criticisms of Joe, here he offers somewhat of a softer perspective on why the character connects with fans despite his horrible actions. “It’s definitely a thing,” he said cautiously of viewers’ “love” for Joe.

Host Nicole Byer seemingly half-jokingly theorized that Joe gets a pass from fans because he kills “out of love.” For his part, Badgley agrees that Joe’s motivations play a role in endearing him to the audience as much as possible, but he also feels that he resonates with a deeper, psychological truth held in viewers’ hearts and minds. “I actually think we live in such a media-saturated age, it’s, like, the things we see on TV and movies, it’s hard to not fantasize about your own life in so many moments,” he said. “Like, ‘This could be better if it was like the things I was seeing [on TV].’ So he’s a representation [of that], I guess.”

What separates Joe from the viewers (hopefully) is his willingness to take these fantasies to violent extremes. Because of this dark trait, Badgley rarely speaks about Joe in an empathic light — in fact, the actor has had little patience in the past for any defensive or otherwise positive opinions about Joe.