“You” fans had a love-hate relationship with Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) throughout Season 1, as they watched the super-charming bookstore manager go around killing people in a disastrous manner that was all in the name of love, kinda. And because Joe is so sweet and cute — when he’s not being totally crazy — a few viewers veered off more into the “love” than “hate” territory, with some even tweeting out requests for Joe to “kidnap” them.
(Thankfully, Badgley responded “No thx” and reminded Joe fans that, uh, “he’s a murderer.”)
When TheWrap sat down to talk with James Scully, who is joining the cast for the show’s just-launched second season, we asked him if he too, is a Joe sympathizer. The answer was complicated and reveals just a bit about how intimate a relationship his character, Forty Quinn, has with Joe in “You” Season 2.
“It’s hard for me now, having done the show and shot the show, to sort of separate Penn and Joe from each other,” the “Heathers” alum told us in an interview, which you can view in the video above. “We spent a lot of time together on set and — without spoiling anything — I’ll say Forty and Joe get VERY close in the second season.”
“So, you know, am I a fan of Joe? No, probably not, right?” Scully says with a laugh. The actor considers Badgley to be the perfect person to play this role because he’s aware that everything his character does is awful.
“So it’s hard, because he is what makes that character so lovable and redeemable, because, again, you could not find someone who is more different than the character he is playing. They’re both sweet, and quiet, and bookish, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end, right? Thank goodness!”
Scully’s character Forty is one of the new people Joe (who goes by “Will” now) meets when he relocates to Los Angeles from New York City at the start of the season. And Forty is the brother of Love, Joe’s –er, WILL’s, love interest for the new season. Netflix has described the character as “confident, opinionated, and privileged.”
Here’s how Scully broke down Forty for us:
“The way I explain it is he’s like a 13-year-old boy trapped in like a full-grown man’s body. His parents have spoiled him rotten, they’ve maybe encouraged some of his more dangerous or self-destructive inclinations. So he can be a little tempestuous, as it were, a little confrontational, a little poorly behaved. But, like, at the center of him he really does just want to be loved and want to be understood and want to be a good friend. So I think that’s what we sort of see happening throughout the second season, is him like trying to fight the battle between his good inner nature and what he thinks people expect him to be.”
Watch TheWrap’s full interview with Scully above to hear his thoughts on the location change from NYC to LA for Season 2.
“You” Season 2 is streaming now on Netflix.