Actor Penn Badgley narrowly avoided an awkward incident with his toddler recently when the little boy almost caught sight of his dad in his creepy role as serial killer Joe Goldberg on the hit Netflix series You. While Penn's story is pretty funny, we have a feeling his son would not have been amused by what his dad gets up to on the show.
Penn has so far had a four-season run on the dark series
Fans have gotten to see a lot of Joe over the past few years, thanks to Penn's fantastic portrayal of the stalker and killer on the run. But while most of us are always on the edge of our seats watching everything that Penn gets up to as he slashes his way through several different love interests, we can't imagine his son, James, would have felt the same way.
He shared the story about the near miss while promoting the most recent season of the series
Penn gushed about James while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "Well, he's a pandemic kid, so anybody who has kids, it's a joy," he explained, before joking that parenting is wild, lovely, and a challenge.
"Shout-out to all the parents. It gets better," he said.
Jimmy asked how much James knows about his dad's day job
Of course, Jimmy was more interested in the question on all of our minds, and asked Penn if James knows "his daddy plays a serial killer," prompting the funny story from the 36-year-old Gossip Girl star.
"There was recently a day when I was doing something sweet with him, on my lap," Penn recalled. "And then I sat on the remote. You wouldn't think this, but it goes right to Netflix on the TV, and my face was right on the TV."
Uh-oh, we totally know where this is going!
James instantly recognized his dad's face on the screen
Unfortunately for Penn, his son was drawn to the TV like a magnet. "And he was like, 'Daddy!' while I started to race around because the next thing he was going to see was something really crazy."
Knowing Joe's dark and sinister ways — he has left a growing number of bodies in his wake across these four seasons — we can only imagine what was about to pop up next on the TV.
A quick-acting Penn saved the day
Penn scrambled to change the channel, and the crisis was averted — something Jimmy joked he would've done with the help of his friend Siri by asking her to play Bluey instead.
We're sure Penn has learned a lot about being quick on his feet as a father. In addition to James, he shares a 13-year-old stepson with wife Domino Kirke.
We have a hunch this isn't the last time Penn is going to have to move fast to keep James from seeing the fictional side of his famous dad. He better follow Jimmy's advice and cue up the Bluey!
