Jameela Jamil applauds Penn Badgley’s refusal of sex scenes
On a recent episode of Penn Badgley's podcast, Jameela Jamil reveals that she pulled out of a You audition after realizing the character was "quite sexy."
Aux News Jameela Jamil
As if there weren’t enough ethics debates going on in Hollywood right now: sex scene discourse is back, courtesy of one Jameela Jamil. During a recent appearance on You star and onscreen intimacy skeptic Penn Badgley’s podcast Podcrushed, Jamil shared that she backed out of an audition for the Netflix series after realizing her character had a significant sultry side.
“I was supposed to audition for the most recent season of your show,” the She-Hulk: Attorney-At-Law actor tells Badgley. “My character was supposed to be quite sexy, and I pulled out of the audition, because I am so shy about anything sexy that I can’t.”
Jamil, who openly discusses childhood trauma and facing sexual abuse during the podcast, says that her past experiences ultimately led her to a blanket decision as an actor: “I don’t do sex scenes.” Notably, that’s a line Badgley has also drawn recently. In a February interview, the actor shared that he worked with You creator Sera Gamble to limit his character Joe’s intimate scenes after deciding: “I don’t want to do that.”
According to Jamil, the “no sex scene” hard limit was one she didn’t know she could act on before Penn Badgley began beating the drum.
“You fucking came out and were like, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing sex scenes anymore.’ And I was like, ‘Fucking hell, I didn’t even know that was a boundary that we could draw,’” Jamil recalls. “But then I was like, I should have gone and done the fucking show.”
Although Jamil may have stepped away from the initial opportunity, she jokes to Badgley that if the perfect role ever came along, she’d be absolute game to come (just not like that!) aboard You, sharing: “If you need an asexual character to murder, just bring me in.” With a fifth and final season of You on the way, Jamil just might be right on time.
66 Comments
It would be funny if somewhat like Nigel from Spinal Tap, she is confusing the concepts of “sexy” and “sexist”
Sounds fine. Anyone who doesn’t wanna do sex scenes shouldn’t do them, and anyone that wants to should be free to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And ideally the people who want to should wait to be asked first. lol
What’s Jameela Jamil’s deal? I know she was on The Good Place but does she do anything else besides give her opinion on stuff? They aren’t even controversial most of the time and at worse are kinda stupid.
I think that’s pretty much it. She lobs bombs every once in a while that cause a stir, but she’s pulled back from a lot of that when a few things backfired on her. She is genuinely funny–she was so good on The Good Place–but at this rate she’s going to end up being famous for being her rather than for any of her actual work.
Which isn’t necessarily bad. Ellen DeGeneres and Steven Colbert aren’t really remembered for their acting roles.
He’s that guy from The Hobbit right? What else has he done?
It’s kind of a toss-up whether Steven Colbert is more remembered for playing Steven Colbert or being Steven Colbert, I suspect.
Steven Colbert is forever remembered for the role of Steven Colbert.
To be fair, before everything changed for Stephen Colbert on The Daily Show and then TCR, he was fantastic on Strangers with Candy with Amy Sedaris. Had he not become known for the Jon Stewart cinematic universe, he almost certainly would’ve continued as a not super famous, but well known and successful niche character actor. Something like Andy Daly. I think Colbert has done talk shows for so long that people forget about his serious comedic acting and theater chops, going back to second city. Back when he did Company a decade ago, it was a short run but he was really good in it.
“She was so good on The Good Place”She was so bad that I thought she was an American actor doing a fake British accent.
I mean , she was a TV presenter before she was an actress , so having opinions on things and talking about it was in her wheelhouse* already.( wtf is a wheelhouse anyway? Like a shed for old wheels?)
Does she do anything else? I mean, she’s an actress so yes. Just in the past year I’ve seen her on She-Hulk, Poker Face and that Pitch Perfect show.
She was a model as well and she may still do that. I’m a fan of her acting but I love that she is also ready to drop some bombs on the internet. She is especially great when she calls out the Kardashians for claiming some $100 face cream is why they always look great, her responses are usually “Bitch, we all know you pay an army of people to spend two hours making you up before your “candid” Instagram pictures” She is also probably the most famous Zebra (The cute name people who have Elhers-Danlos(aka EDS) call themselves) around, which is a good thing because it helps make more people aware of a serious and shitty immune disease that often gets misdiagnosed.
I do appreciate her take on Met Gala attendees and their celebration of Lagerfeld.
Eh, that’s just what all the “cool” celebrities are doing this year. Pedro Pascal made a point of wearing an outfit designed by a competitor. But really, the whole thing just gives KL more press. I’m not a clothes guy but I had never heard of him before all of this.
Having takes is a viable career path nowadays as long as you are (or at least know) at least one celebrity with a podcast.
Did you not notice where she played a major character in an MCU TV show?
I don’t think she was an actress prior to The Good Place.
“What’s Jameela Jamil’s deal?”She’s very tall.
She’s an interesting one. I found myself reading her wikipedia entry while watching the good place and apparently she has a history of exaggerating bee attacks. If I remember right she claimed a bee chased her into traffic and caused her to get hit by a car on two separate occasions.
A bee bit my bottom, now my bottom’s big.
I wonder if she knows her insects. Bees aren’t that aggressive (even the so-called “killer bees”). Wasps and hornets, though, those guys are assholes.
She definitely has a truth problem. Tracie Morrissey on Instagram has assembled a pretty damning collection of contradictions in Jamil’s anecdotes over the years suggesting that she is a frequent liar and possibly has Munchausen Syndrome (pathologically lying about illness to garner sympathy and attention).
She started out as one of these Sunday morning light entertainment breakfast TV hosts in the UK, before moving onto appearances on all these comedy panel shows we have. So she’s been around forever over here. It was a bit weird seeing the sudden pivot to Hollywood acting.I probably sound terrible but I have a lot of trouble believing without question the validity of anything she says about her past – she’s been caught out too many times telling fibs.
I came here to say the same thing but in her defense, after reading the article, it feels more like an A.V. Club thing than her fault, at least in that case. She made a mild, non-controversial comment during a podcast and it made the news somehow.
She was invited to a podcast where the only thing you do is talk about your opinions. Hardly a crime. Blame 24/7 entertainment media for turning everything out of a celebrity’s mouth into pressing news.
“We also applaud his refusal” – Eyes Everywhere
Dude looks like Cancer Jesus.
https://www.theonion.com/women-now-empowered-by-everything-a-woman-does-1819566746
Every actor or person should be able to say no to that, of course. But I’m so puzzled … what sex scenes are actors saying no to? There are so few sex scenes in TV or movies these days, America in particular has gotten so squeamish about sex that, other than violence, it feels like most media is highly sterilized. Yet Badgley was praised far and wide for admitting to it. His show is definitely an exception to the rule, but I still didn’t understand why he was so brave to do it …Bring me sex! Bring me romance! If the actors are ok with it and it makes sense to be in a movie, why not?
“ If the actors are ok with it and it makes sense to be in a movie, why not?”
You came SO FUCKING CLOSE TO GETTING THE POINT. It’s *RIGHT FUCKING THERE*, man
It would be refreshing to see an actor okay with sex scenes but refusing to do any involving violence.
I guess it depends on what you count as a sex scene. The full exposure ones do seem a bit less common than they did a decade or two ago, but the sex scene with strategically placed arms and blankets seems to be doing well. I imagine for an actor the latter could be just as uncomfortable as the former.
“There are so few sex scenes in TV or movies these days”I don’t know that I’m finding this to be true? I mean there’s not a lot of full frontal but that’s always been the case.
fascinating
If, as an actor you’re unwilling to do what the character and project require stop taking the check and let them get someone dedicated. Besides, sex scenes in film and television are so coordinated and “safe” and watered down they’re practically like any other scene anyhow.
That seems to be exactly what happened in this story? She didn’t like the sexy aspect of the role so passed on it.
Or you could just ask your boss if it’s possible to make accommodations for the workplace to suit you better, and if the boss says yes then great. We should all feel able to do that at our places of employment. I’m sorry you don’t.
As soon as Badgley came into my office demanding I change my show the very next EW piece would’ve been “I can’t believe they killed off Badgley’s character like THAT”.
He didn’t “demand” anything. He asked if they could tone it down the sex scenes a bit, and the showrunner went one further and eliminated them entirely.
So it’s the showrunner’s fault.
But as we all know: showrunners are omnipotent, blameless entities who must never be questioned.
I don’t what point you’re trying to make.
You don’t what point I’m trying make?
You know what he means, asshole..
He never has a point.
I don’t think you have that quite right.As I recall, the reports were that he asked for them to be cut back, ideally to zero, but recognised that probably wasn’t possible given the show he’d signed up for. And the showrunner agreed to reduce them, but with no suggestion that they’d be eliminated entirely.
You’re right, I misremembered. Thanks.
Dear Jameela and Penn:You are trying too hard. Undo!- Bjork
Ah yes, Jamil talking about something Penn talked about previously SURE IS PENN TRYING TOO HARD!
It’s fine that neither or them want to do sex scenes, but the way Badgley compared doing them to infidelity was strange.
I have never done anything close to a sex scene but I did TRY to act in a few high school plays. I often actually felt some version of the emotion(s) I was trying to portray and I have read/heard that this is not uncommon even for professional actors. Might have something to do with all the on-set romances you’ve read/heard about!
I don’t think it was. Neal McDonough has always taken the same position. I mean it’s obviously not the objectively “right” position because it’s a subjective thing, and what counts as cheating has to be defined by the people in the relationship anyway. If they feel like it’s cheating, then it’s cheating for them and they shouldn’t do it. It doesn’t mean that they’ve decided that it’s cheating for any other actor.
This will not prevent me from fapping to her.
Just so long as you don’t do it while she is actually present in the room.
No – Louis CK probably
And women everywhere will remain repulsed by you.
So he refuses to do them because he sees it as infidelity, and she refuses because of traumatic past sexual abuse? Fair enough, but refusing sex scenes sound like a side effect rather than the actual problem, for both of them.
It feels like Badgley’s about to go full Kirk Cameron and insist any female character he has a remotely romantic interaction with suddenly be replaced by his wife.
By Kirk Cameron’s wife?
I also choose Kirk Cameron’s wife
Or we could just take him at his word that he just doesn’t wanted to do fewer sex scenes and not pathologize him into a fundie.
you’re literally only in front of camera because people want to bust a load in you, lady
Not a surprise that it took a man deciding he didn’t want to do sex scenes for people to start taking this issue seriously.
I don’t scrub toilets at work. I refuse to. Do I deserve a fucking medal for my bravery too? Fuck outta here.
Guess I’ll have to propose some personal bi action with Jameela if I ever wanna see that ass.
You, that’s the show about the amoral serial killer , but everyone’s OK with the bad guy being the lead and getting away with it cos he’s hot, right?