Webinar: PEN/Faulkner's Literary Conversation with Caroline Kepnes and Penn Badgley, stars of YOU!

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a Pen/Faulkner Literary Conversation with Caroline Kepnes and Penn Badgley. Swoon...

Is it possible for a serial killer to be any less charming? Sigh. 

Literature on Screen is a mini-series within PEN/Faulkner’s Literary Conversations program in which we feature authors whose work has been adapted into a film or TV series. This third installment will feature Caroline Kepnes, author of the best-selling book turned hit Netflix series, You. Caroline will be in conversation with Penn Badgley actor and star of the TV adaptation, and moderator Chris Klimek (NPR, Washington Post) to discuss the translation of her books to the hit Netflix series, as well as the modernization of stalking in the digital age that takes place in her novels.

Penn Badgley stars as Joe Goldberg in Netflix’s thriller series, "YOU," based on Caroline Kepnes’ best-selling novel of the same name.

Caroline started writing the book, "You" once she had the loss of her father. She
knew that this person would never call again. And she wrote this as a way to cope. This character Joe, lives in his head. Never in the real world. And she felt very much in her head after her father's death. So birthed the character of Joe. 

Pen says that he finds "Joe" far more scary on paper than on the screen. He records the voice of Joe long before he even acts out any of the scenes. Most of the time during filming he's doing a lot of watching. He's cold reading often as he's doing the voice over. From playing this character, he says he's no more careful with the world than he was before. He leaves "Joe" on set. He says, when we suffer we tend to over analyze. But sadness he says, brings a vale of a kind. And we become over analytical. Where he understands and identifies with him brings him moments of self accounting. He doesn't feel that Joe is that skilled of a criminal. He reveals how "dumbly easy" some of this is to do if you had the mind set to do it. He's someone who feels cornered and who has had to figure out how to do things. This character is so well read and also current with pop culture. 

We all know the feeling when someone is being absolutely horrible. In these characters, Caroline loves something about them to create them and can't stand something about them. She creates with enough angst that we may also want to kill them. It's like a relationship with someone we may actually know in real life. Joe thinks he's the only one with the moral compass. No one knows what he's been through, no one ever will. And he's just in his action of taking them out of the world. 

We discussed how In the show, Joe doesn't just kill for his own self interest. In the book he has his own internal conversations and he's talking to typewriters. He kills for just himself, though he feels like he kills to better the whole world. To work as a show you needed characters like Paco, who is an abused and neglected child. And for him to kills for others and Ellie in season two. 

Her third installment of the You series will be coming out titled, You Love Me. And four book won't be far behind...

Joe Goldberg's story isn't over yet."Joe is really proud of himself because a lot of people in his position descend into darkness after having been through what he’s gone through in book two and then in the beginning of book three. And he decides that he’s going to be a better person and he’s very proud of himself for that. Having dealt with Love’s family and dating someone with this close relationship with their twin brother, he’s very focused on the idea that he should be the one with the family. But yeah, the main thrust of it is that he’s very proud of his strength."

I know it was a pleasure to be a part of this webinar this evening and I can't wait for the third season of YOU on Netflix and even more the third book, You Love Me. 

Blog post by "YOU" lover: Brittany P.