Actor Penn Badgley, known for his eerie role as the stalker-murderer-turned-English-professor Joe Goldberg in Netflix’s You, made headlines when he joined TikTok last year and started posting some hilarious videos.
However, one that really got fans talking was when he performed a lip-sync and dance to Taylor Swift’s Midnights lead single “Anti-Hero.” Similar to the music video, Badgley runs through his house, only to answer the door to a duplicate version of himself as Goldberg — wearing none other than his character’s typical costume (a baseball cap).
@iampennbadgley #antihero
♬ Anti-Hero – Taylor Swift
As the show recently dropped the first half of its fourth season, Badgley did a new interview with Rolling Stone where he discussed the popular TikTok video.
“I thought for years, ‘I’ll get a TikTok when the time is right,’” Badgley shared. “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.”
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to play Joe,” he added. “And so I bring that to it in a way. Joe is always struggling with who he is, and what he’s doing. There’s always like three levels of lies with Joe no matter what’s happening.”
Watch Penn Badgley (as You‘s Joe Goldberg) dancing to Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” above.