In USA TODAY’s The Essentials, celebrities share what fuels their lives, whether it’s at home, on set or on the road.
Penn Badgley is waving farewell to Joe Goldberg and closing the chapter on his Netflix leading man.
The “You” and former “Gossip Girl” star, 38, is an open book (pun most definitely intended), although he reads as more of a spiritual text than his onscreen alter ego’s crime thriller.
“We’ll see what else I can do,” says Badgley, who sat down with USA TODAY for a series of exclusive conversations. “I’m not worried about what I’ve done in the past. I would have had more concern about being able to summit the peak of a show like ‘Gossip Girl.’ I’ve heard that most people die on the way down from Everest – anyone can get on a show like ‘Gossip Girl,’ but can you then make it off and go somewhere else? That’s difficult for anybody. I think one of the only ways I could have done it was to play someone like Joe and essentially murder Dan Humphrey.”
Badgley combines past, present and future as he shares the artists on his Spotify playlist, his chill morning routine and his ideal New York day for USA TODAY’s The Essentials.
Penn Bagdley reveals his daily essentials, from music to an ideal day
Penn Badgley on his daily essentials, favorite music, and how he spends a perfect day.
Penn Badgley music favorites include D’Angelo, of course
Badgley has an eclectic mix of favorites on his Spotify playlist.
“I always have to mention D’Angelo. I would love for D’Angelo to get tired in my mind. I would love for me to feel as though, ‘You know what, I’m done, because I’ve done it.’ But literally yesterday I went back to (his 2000 album) ‘Voodoo’ and I was like, ‘No, it’s still the best.’ I don’t know how that’s possible.”
Also on Badgley’s rotation are Radiohead, Joan As Police Woman, London bands Kokoroko and Sault, Luke Temple and his wife, Domino Kirke: “My wife is putting out a record, and it’s gorgeous.” He later adds Kendrick Lamar to the list. “Kendrick manages to do the nearly impossible thing, which is, be authentic, transparent, prolific, Black, hugely successful, all together,” he says.
Penn Badgley’s perfect New York City day
Did you think a homemade roast chicken was on the list of what makes Badgley’s ideal day spent in New York? He’s a multi-faceted man.
“Ideally wake up before the sunrise, have some tea and watch the sunrise,” he says, envisioning “I’m in a penthouse suite hotel room, let’s say.” He would “maybe walk through Central Park” before meeting up again with his family, “and then we have lunch on the park.”
His dream day in the city changes with the seasons, too. “If it’s summer, I’d say we go swimming (to) Rockaway and get in the ocean. If it’s the winter, maybe we go ice skating,” he says.
And for dinner? “Well, the best meals are homecooked meals. So we leave the penthouse suite behind just for the evening, we go home, and maybe roast a chicken. … Then go to sleep by 9:30 p.m., maybe the kids go to bed at 7:30 p.m. … If I could be going into REM sleep by 10 p.m., that is a day right there. Don’t sleep on that.
“You young ones who think ‘this man sounds like he needs to get a life’? No, I’m telling you, I am living. I lived my 20s the way you’re doing it. This is the way you’ve got to be: Early to sleep, early to rise.”
Travel essentials: Peace, mainly
Badgley’s Joe Goldberg has traveled the world in his pursuit of obsession. But as Badgley himself arrives at the airport, he has a singular thought: “Where are my children? Are they here? The 4-year-old, especially, we don’t want to lose him.”
Once his kids are located, the actor looks to find peace sans cellphone. “If I don’t have to be on my phone at all, it’s not a must have, it’s like a must have not. A plane is the one place where (I ask): Can we just stop?”
He’s not exactly “rawdogging flights,” though. “I like to spend some of the time that way, some of the time just with my thoughts,” but he wants the option to “watch a movie, maybe, maybe not, sleep.”
What’s on his nightstand?
Joe’s bookstore plays prominently in the final season of “You,” so it’s fitting that Badgley should have a variety of classic texts alongside him.
“Honestly, on my nightstand I have the Quran, which sometimes I’ll meditate on a passage from,” Badgley says. “You know what I just read that I thought, ‘Everybody loves horror so much’? ‘Dracula.’ It’s a good book.”
Likely coming up on more than just Badgley’s nightstand: His new essay collection with his “Podcrushed” cohosts Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari. “Crushmore: Essays on Love, Loss, and Coming-of-Age” (Simon & Schuster, out Oct. 7) will explore “stories of heartbreak, anxiety, and self-discovery,” according to the publisher.
Penn Badgley’s morning routine doesn’t involve Saratoga water, banana peels
Though the actor’s morning might not look influencer chic and be complete with a Saratoga ice water dunk and rubbing banana peels on his face, he does try to keep one thing consistent to start each day.
“I have a comical, total bankruptcy of a morning routine because of children and work,” he says.
“But here’s the one thing I have. If I get this, it’s worth all of the things,” he says. “There’s this particular prayer within the Baháʼí Writings,” says Badgley, who is part of the Baháʼí Faith, “called the long obligatory prayer. It takes about 15 minutes to say. I have it memorized, and I’ve had it memorized for years, because I love it. I timed it: If I say it extremely fast, I can say it in seven minutes. And then meditate like two minutes after, so I’ve gotten it down to a nine-minute routine if I blitz through it.”
But if there’s time, “I can take 15 to 20 minutes if I want to be a little more luxurious. If I can do that on any given day, any morning, it just makes such a difference, because it orients me to remember a bit more clearly the purpose and nature of life – or at least a fulfilling life, an enriching one.”
A killer workout routine and diet
Badgley gets even more active in Season 5 as Joe Goldberg, kidnapping people, physically fighting and running through the forest in the season finale.
“With Joe, there’s an athletic amount of rage and intensity and vitriol usually in any given scene, even if it’s just a scene,” Badgley says.
Badgley says he approaches his diet while filming “like you would for a workout.”
“You want to be fueled, but empty. That’s the ideal state for a scene,” noting the “challenge” is maintaining that “for 12 hours a day. I usually end up going mostly vegetarian by the end of every season.”
For his workout, Badgley sticks to the basics.
“I’ve started doing all body-weight calisthenics, like only pullups, only pushups, only body-weight squats. And I love it. I don’t even do that many. Just do one set to failure every day of each one.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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