Penn Badgley’s character, Joe in ‘You’ might relate to Taylor Swift’s ‘Anti-Hero’ according to Badgley himself! He was also seen lip-syncing to the song dressed as his character in a viral TikTok video. This was the first video he ever posted on his account, and yet it has garnered about nine million views as of now. In an interview, he gave all credits to Swift’s song for inspiring him to start his TikTok career.
“I thought for years, ‘I’ll get a TikTok when the time is right,’” he said. “And then when Taylor’s record came out, it just seemed the song wouldn’t have worked with anybody else. Me. Joe. Anti-Hero. Taylor Swift? It just was the perfect moment.”
‘Anti-Hero’ is Swift’s longest-running No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. When Badgley took to TikTok to post a video on the song, Swift herself commented “OMG!!!!” Badgley wears Joe’s trademark baseball cap in the video, and sings, “I’m the problem, it’s me.” Fans of the show ‘You’ will agree to the statement. Joe, like Swift, struggles with his insecurities and personal demons.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to play Joe,” Badgley explained in the new interview. “And so I bring that to it in a way. Joe is always struggling with who he is, and what he’s doing,” he says. “There’s always like three levels of lies with Joe no matter what’s happening.”
– Riya Sohini