Penn Badgley opens up about the dark side of fame: “Not a good way for somebody to live”
In a new interview, Netflix‘s You star Penn Badgley has opened up about the strenuous demands of fame.
“I’ve been grappling with all the ways in which this stuff is just not a good way for somebody to live,” he revealed to The Guardian, when explaining why he found fame isolating and alienating.
The star stated that it is, “extremely unnatural, just the way that people want to relate to you. It’s not a new idea that fame has all these nefarious dimensions to it.”
He continued: “In order to even appreciate or utilise the privileges that come with it, one has to really grapple with the ways in which it’s completely disabled parts of you or your life, or your relationship to others and society.” Badgley has used spirituality to deal with the constant scrutiny, stating that he prays and meditates daily.
Badgley stressed in the interview that he is aware of his privilege, stating that the “privileges and the sacrifices are both extreme and obscene, and so you have to take them both. In order to be a decent person, a good father and a husband, a good friend, a responsible colleague.”
The star, who is now a happily married father of two with twins on the way, opened up in the same interview about his experience with undiagnosed body dysmorphia. Because of the “superficiality of our culture,” he mused, it was almost inevitable that he would have issues with his body image.
The fifth and final instalment of the stalker-thriller series, You, will be released on Netflix on April 24th. Badgley will play psychopath Joe Goldberg one more time, as he faces his biggest challenges and worst bouts of insanity yet. Following the finale, the 38-year-old has a book set for autumn release.
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