Penn Badgley tries his best

The fifth and final season of You premieres today. I do not watch this show but I do know there’s a following. Some people are super into it, and probably just as many hate-watch it. Which means You will probably be all over your feed for the next few days as people binge their way through. This is Netflix’s big series priority for the next two weeks, until Tina Fey’s The Four Seasons comes out next week. 

The star of You, of course, is Penn Badgley and he’s been promoting the show this week, on another farewell tour for another television character that he’ll always be associated with. Few actors get to do this once, never mind twice. For Penn, though, it’s now Dan Humphrey and Joe … I don’t know his last name because I don’t know the show, I just know it’s Joe. 

On the Call Her Daddy podcast recently, Penn was asked about the way Gossip Girl and Dan have always followed him around: 

“Next year I’ll be 40. I will still be answering questions about this show I decided to do when I was 20,” he said. “Whatever, that is what it is. Certainly, that’s fine, but it sets you on a certain track that you have to, in a sense, resist. You have to learn how to work with it, interface with it, otherwise it just sort of takes you on its ride.”

Going from Lonely Boy to stalker-murderer was a choice. And then, as Penn has mentioned many times, coming to realise that the stalker-murderer became a sex symbol must have been a mindf-ck. 

Anyway, let’s get to the main point of this post, because all of that was just a preamble/excuse to enjoy his performance as he made his way down Jennifer Hudson’s Spirit Tunnel. He tried his best! 

First of all, credit again to the team at The Jennifer Hudson Show because they somehow always come up with exactly the right songs and chants for their guests. Second, credit to Penn because he’s obviously not worried about looking goofy and played along and found the perfect balance between earnest and not talking it too seriously. Like, we’re not in Aaron Pierre territory here (AS IF), but it’s cute because he’s willing, he’s having a good time, and even though one day his children might watch this back, mortified, it seems as though that’s kinda what he’s hoping for, LOL. Better this than trying to be cool which, in his case, in this setting, is impossible. 

Speaking of kids, Penn and his wife Domino Kirke, who joined him at the premiere last night, are expecting their second and third (her fourth), she’s pregnant with twins.