Penn Badgley is opening up about the physical transformation he underwent for his role in You Deserve Each Other.
During a recent conversation with his costar Meghann Fahy on the latest episode of his Podcrushed podcast, the You star admitted he was “consumed” with losing weight for his role as dentist Nicholas Rose.
“It did happen very fast,” Badgley said of joining the film, adapted from Sarah Hogle’s bestselling book. “I signed on right before we had to go [shoot the movie]. I was mostly consumed with losing enough weight, so it just made sense for how maniacal this guy was supposed to be about his body.”
He continued, “The way he is written on the page is truly, like, I should have had a shredded eight-pack. I should have had a Marvel body. And I had a real-life good body, you know what I’m saying? There’s a difference.”
You Deserve Each Other follows engaged couple, Naomi (Fahy) and Nicholas, who have fallen out of love and try to sabotage each other into calling off their wedding, only to fall back in love in the process.
The Gossip Girl alum acknowledged that getting toned for a role was a first for him, quipping, “I never had to lose weight and get kind of ripped for a role, so I was just like, ‘Of all things [it is for] a fucking comedy, of course.”
The film also stars Natalie Morales, Justin Long, Kyle MacLachlan, Ana Gasteyer, Hope Davis, Delaney Rowe and Lisa Gilroy. Timothy Busfield was also set to play Bernie, father to Fahy’s character Naom, in the film, but his role was edited out following his recent child sexual abuse allegations.
