When Netflix's You hit our screens, its star Penn Badgley was forced to take to social media to remind people that his character is a cold-blooded killer after being inundated with messages of lust.
One Twitter user wrote: "Said this already but @PennBadgley is breaking my heart once again as Joe. What is it about him?"
Penn replied: "A: He is a murderer".
Another fan tweeted: "The amount of people romanticising @PennBadgley’s character in YOU scares me".
Penn agreed: "Ditto. It will be all the motivation I need for season 2."
But the Gossip Girl actor understands why viewers have conflicting feelings about Joe Goldberg, who becomes obsessed with his love interests, stalking them and sometimes killing them.
"There are times where Joe is so impossibly sympathetic and even honest and brave," he told InStyle.
"Sometimes he’s the exact perfect balance between chivalrous and allowing his partner to be autonomous and empowered.
"He’s actually in some ways made to be the perfect guy that does this really - to even say it's terrible is kind of an understatement - thing."
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Penn rose to fame as Phillip Chancellor IV in US soap The Young and the Restless , and also starred in comedy John Tucker Must Die , but it was his role as Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl that made Penn a household name.
The 34-year-old also embarked on a brief music career when he was 12, recording a pop single following his parent's divorce which he later branded "terrible" and "misguided".
"It was a little song," he cringed to The Guardian.
"When you first go to LA as a kid, there are all these things you have to do, all these workshops you have to take, and a producer found me in one of them. I wanted to make music but as a 12-year-old, you have no idea."
He admitted he was "creepy" to have a 12-year-old boy singing about a beautiful night he spent with someone - though he didn't completely give up on music, and now fronts an indie band called MOTHXR.
Because his acting career began when he was just a teenager, Penn dropped out of high school and was home schooled with one of his childhood friends who was also pursuing acting - Blake Lively.
Blake would eventually land a major role as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl , Penn's character Dan's girlfriend, and their relationship would spill over to off-screen.
Their 2007-2010 relationship drove dedicated fans of the show wild, though Penn admitted it made filming much harder once they split.
Grilled by Andy Cohen on his best on-screen kiss, Penn replied: "I’d say best … I’ll say it was [Blake Lively] because we actually had a relationship at the time."
But when asked what his worst on-screen kiss was, Penn admitted: "Maybe Blake after we broke up."
The pair actually kept their break up under wraps on the set so as not to make their colleagues feel awkward, executive producer Joshua Safran explained.
"The shocking thing was, I found out on the set of the season 2 finale that Blake and Penn had broken up months before," he told Vanity Fair.
"They kept the breakup hidden from the crew, which you could never do now. I don’t even know how they did it.
"They kept it from everybody which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their personal drama to relate to the show."
Blake is now married to Ryan Reynolds, and they share three daughters together.
"We were very much caught up in the show, which itself was a six-year endurance test," Penn later told Elle.
"Our relationship was a part of that and helped us through it. I mean, like anything valuable, it was good and it was bad and it was a learning experience."
Penn would go on to date actress Zoe Kravitz from 2011-2013, and Penn said he bonded with Zoe's father, Lenny Kravitz.
"We get along, we talk music. [Lenny] took me to Harlem to see this little jazz show in the back of a church," he revealed.
But two years later, Penn and Zoe split, though it was said to be amicable and due to conflicting schedules.
"It wasn't a sad breakup. It is all good between them," a source told US Weekly.
"They are at two different stages in their careers. They just didn't have time for each other."
Big Little Lies star Zoe went on to embark on a relationship with Channing Tatum following his split from Jessie J.
The following year, Penn met singer and doula Domino Kirke, and three years later the happy couple would tie the knot in a small and simple courthouse ceremony.
Penn became a stepfather to Domino's son, Cassius Riley, who was born in 2009.
Last year, he honoured his wife's birthday with a gushing Instagram post where he called her "truly radiant soul".
"For me, it is a joy to witness you when you are happy," he wrote.
"For you, I always hope to be a source of joy. I’m really glad we’re married."
In August 2020, Domino gave birth to their first child, a boy, after she had tragically suffered two miscarriages before.
Domino, who has assisted the birth of A-listers including Amy Shumer, announced her pregnancy in an emotional Instagram post, and said their pain had made them almost "call it".
"I stopped trusting my body and started to accept the fact that I was done," she wrote.
"As a birth attendant, I’ve seen and heard it all. It takes everything I’ve got to detach lovingly from the losses I’ve been present for and be in my own experience."
She said she "knew nothing" during her first pregnancy, when she was 25.
"I had no community. I dove in blissfully unaware about birth and its mysteries," said the musician.
"Now, with 10 years worth of experience to pull from, I treasure my birth community and the knowledge I have. You’re already teaching us how to stay in the day in a way we’ve never had to, little one. Thank you."
Domino told Hey Mama that when she first met Penn, she was only concerned about raising her son, and so she didn't expect their relationship to become serious.
"I was sort of getting used to being a single mom, maybe a little too used to it," she said.
"I had a really good thing with my kid and we were like this little team. Penn and I were dating, but it wasn’t nearly as serious as it is now, of course. I didn’t think marriage was in the cards for us.
"So I was sort of just chugging along, surviving, and getting through the days, and I think the difference now is that I’m really living."
Becoming a dad made Penn's performance as Joe, who has also become a dad in the upcoming third series of You , much harder.
"The funny thing is I was curious what my new fatherhood, how that would influence my experience with Joe and acting with him, and sometimes it was almost not helpful because I was having such a light and joyful experience — still am — and Joe is so petrified," he told Access.
"He's so scared, and of course I can identify with the fear, but he's just so morbid in his obsessive, sort of like self-preservation, primal instinct that sometimes I almost found it harder as a result, you know what I mean?
"It really depended on the scene."
You series three lands on Netflix on Friday, and fans of the show will be delighted to learn a fourth series has already been commissioned, too.
"It's been thrilling to watch Penn bring Joe to creepy yet compelling life," showrunner Sera Gamble said in a statement.
"We're deeply grateful that Netflix has shown You such monumental support and that people around the world have enjoyed watching Joe really get it all very wrong over the past 3 seasons.
"The whole You team is excited to explore new, dark facets of love in season 4."
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