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22 surprising things probably you didn't know about 'You'

22 surprising things probably you didn't know about 'You'
"You" stars Penn Badgley as Joe.Netflix
  • There are a lot of things you may not know about Netflix's thriller series "You."
  • Scenes in Mooney's bookstore are filmed in an actual book store in New York City.

The word "you" is said over 3,800 times throughout seasons one and two of the show.

The word "you" is said over 3,800 times throughout seasons one and two of the show.
Episode one has the most "you"s.      Netflix

The official Instagram for Netflix Australia and New Zealand calculated the times the word "you" has been said on the show throughout the first two seasons – and they got 3,857.

They also noted that the word was said a bit more often during season one than it was during season two.

According to the account, the first episode of the series features the word "you" the most.

Penn Badgley didn't want to play Joe at first.

Penn Badgley didn
Penn Badgley really hated Joe.      Roy Rochlin/Getty

At first, Badgley was reluctant to take on the role of Joe.

In a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said he was "conflicted" about the part, largely because the show is framed as a love story. "If this is a love story, what is it saying?" he said.

Ultimately, discussions with showrunners Sera Gamble and Greg Berlanti convinced Badgley the part and show had enough nuance to make it worth taking.

The show is based on a book - and the author of it has written on a number of TV shows.

The show is based on a book - and the author of it has written on a number of TV shows.
Caroline Kepnes wrote for "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."      Facebook/The Secret Life of the American Teenager

The show is based on a book series of the same name by Caroline Kepnes.

"You" was Kepnes' first book, but according to her website, she's written for shows including "7th Heaven" and "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."

Kepnes also wrote "You Got Me Babe," the eighth episode of "You."

Kepnes came up with the character of Joe while in a coffee shop.

Kepnes came up with the character of Joe while in a coffee shop.
She said she was partially inspired by being glared at as she used social media.      Netflix

Kepnes told Refinery29 in 2018 that she was in a coffee shop scrolling through Facebook and noticed someone glaring at her.

"The voice clicked for me in that moment," she said. "I was obsessing about social media, and I had wanted to write something like this. But it was in that moment that I really got it. Joe is someone who is always the one looking and judging. He's very at ease with that in himself. That's where I found this great outlet for my little frustrations."

The facade of the bookstore where Joe works during season one is a real shop.

The facade of the bookstore where Joe works during season one is a real shop.
The real store is Logos Bookstore.      Google Maps/Netflix

Season one of "You" used Logos Bookstore, a specialty bookstore on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York, as the exterior and front interior of Mooney's, according to Brick Underground.

Although little was changed about the actual bookstore, Logos does not have a cage in its basement. The basement scenes in "You" were filmed on a separate set in the Bronx.

Logos Bookstore has been featured in other productions, too.

Logos Bookstore has been featured in other productions, too.
"You" isn't the first time the bookstore has been used as a set.      Twentieth Century Fox

According to the American Booksellers Association, Logos is also featured in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?," a movie starring Melissa McCarthy as an out-of-work writer who begins forging old literary texts to make money.

To film on the subway tracks during season one, some actors had to take an eight-hour-long safety course.

To film on the subway tracks during season one, some actors had to take an eight-hour-long safety course.
The scene was actually filmed in New York City.      Netflix

During season one, Beck (Elizabeth Lail) falls on the subway tracks and Joe helps her up.

This scene was no joke to film since it was actually shot at a New York City subway station and many safety guidelines were in place.

"I had to take an eight-hour course to be on those tracks," Lail told BUILD series in 2018. Badgley said he also took this course.

Badgley also said that after the training course he and Lail received cards certifying them to go on subway tracks for a year and a half.

The season-one scene at the Greenpoint Avenue subway station likely wasn't filmed at the actual station.

The season-one scene at the Greenpoint Avenue subway station likely wasn
The colors are different in the series.      Netflix

The real-life Greenpoint, Brooklyn, subway stop is accented with green. In the show, the stop is accented with red.

The scene on what's alluded to as the Staten Island Ferry was not filmed on the Staten Island Ferry.

The scene on what
The "You" version of the Staten Island Ferry's upper deck versus the actual upper deck.      Netflix/Wikimedia Commons

On episode eight, Beck asked Joe if he'd ever been to Staten Island.

They go on to have a romantic ride on what is not actually the Staten Island Ferry, the only major way to travel by boat from Manhattan to Staten Island.

"What could happen on the upper deck of an immensely popular tourist destination?" Joe asked as he boarded what was supposedly the ferry.

It is possible to film on the Staten Island Ferry, and movies and shows have done so in the past — but this scene likely didn't do so. The real-life Staten Island Ferry is much more orange than its TV counterpart.

Peach Salinger got her name because author Kepnes thought it was "annoying."

Peach Salinger got her name because author Kepnes thought it was "annoying."
Peach's name is supposed to be annoying.      Netflix

Kepnes told Refinery29 in 2018 that she wanted the character Peach (Shay Mitchell) to have a name that'd be "kind of annoying."

"I also thought peaches were perfect because they're ripe and delicious, and then they're spoiled, poison, they attract flies, they can make you sick," she added.

Candace wasn't always supposed to come back.

Candace wasn
There's a reason viewers thought she was dead.      Netflix

During the final scene of season one, Candace (Ambyr Childers) — Joe's subject of obsession before Beck who viewers were led to believe was dead — returns.

This is a departure from the book, and one that wasn't initially going to happen on the TV show.

In a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gamble said she and Berlanti decided at about the middle of the first season to bring Candace back, and they started to "misdirect" viewers to make them think she was dead.

Candace had a different fate in the book.

Candace had a different fate in the book.
In the book, she was dead.      Netflix

Part of the reason some viewers may have been surprised by Candace's return is that, in the novel, Joe drowns Candace at Brighton Beach in Brooklyn after she breaks up with him.

The necklace that Ellie wears on the show is from a thrift shop.

The necklace that Ellie wears on the show is from a thrift shop.
Jenna Ortega as Ellie on "You."      Netflix

Jenna Ortega, who played Ellie (Jenna Ortega) on season two of "You," told Insider she wanted to take Ellie's nameplate necklace home, but was not able to because there is only one copy of it, and showrunners needed to keep it in case Ellie returns.

"I was so disappointed when I couldn't take it because they only had one that they found at some random thrift shop, and I was like, 'Ahh, alright," she told Insider. "If they had multiple options then maybe I could have taken one."

The band Nirvana has a large presence on "You."

The band Nirvana has a large presence on "You."
You can see the Nirvana shirt under her cardigan.      Netflix

On the first episode of the show, Beck buys "Desperate Characters" by Paula Fox. Fox, as Joe tells her, is the grandmother of Courtney Love, who was married to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

During the show's finale, Beck wears Joe's Nirvana T-shirt. There's also a nail salon called Nirvana next to the onscreen and real-life location of the bookstore.

And, during season two, the show centers around the grocery and wellness store Anavrin, which is Nirvana spelled backward.

Victoria Pedretti, who plays Love, said the most awkward scene to film was a sex scene.

Victoria Pedretti, who plays Love, said the most awkward scene to film was a sex scene.
She said the scene didn't seem real.      Netflix

Victoria Pedretti, who played Love during season two, said that the most disturbing scene to film was a sex scene between her and Joe.

"I think the most unsettling thing is probably when we shot the sex scene where we were both meant to start having sex and come simultaneously in five seconds. I found that really disturbing," she told Harper's Bazaar in 2020. "I was like, 'How are we … ? That's not real.'"

Tati Gabrielle filmed her first-ever sex scene for "You."

Tati Gabrielle filmed her first-ever sex scene for "You."
Penn Badgley and Tati Gabrielle on "You."      John P. Fleenor/Netflix

Gabrielle, who played Marienne on season three, told Page Six she "freaked out" when filming her first sex scene with Badgley.

"I was so nervous," the actress told Page Six. "I told Penn upfront, 'Hey, I've never done this before.' And he was like, 'It's gonna be OK.'"

She said the show's intimacy coordinator, who helps walk through sex scenes and ensure actors' well-being during them, was also helpful.

Even though Dylan Arnold plays a teenager on the show, he's older than Pedretti in real life.

Even though Dylan Arnold plays a teenager on the show, he
Dylan Arnold and Victoria Pedretti are almost the same age in real life.      Netflix

Arnold, who plays the teenager who Love has an affair with during season three, is actually older than Pedretti. He is 27, she is 26.

"It's actually funny, because I'm a year older than Victoria [Pedretti], and much older than my character, so those moments where she's referring to me as a teenager were always really funny because I'm older than she is," the actor told Teen Vogue.

Arnold also auditioned for two other roles on "You" before being cast as Theo.

Arnold also auditioned for two other roles on "You" before being cast as Theo.
Dylan Arnold as Theo.      Netflix

Arnold told Teen Vogue he auditioned to play Joe on season one and to play Forty on season two.

"So my relationship with the show goes way back, and I actually went to college with Elizabeth Lail, who played Guinevere Beck in the first season," he added.

Shalita Grant struggled with fake crying on season three.

Shalita Grant struggled with fake crying on season three.
Shalita Grant as Sherry Conrad.      Netflix

Grant, who played Sherry Conrad, told Insider one of the hardest parts of filming was fake crying.

"When I found out that I was going to have to cry I was like, 'You know what? I am going to hack this, totally in the vein of Sherry and Cary," she said.

Grant said she improved her skills with script analysis and mental tricks.

Madre Linda's library scenes were filmed on a set, but a real library was used for exterior shots.

Madre Linda
Madre Linda Library isn't 100% authentic.      Netflix

Gamble told Insider the crew used a real library and a set to create the Madre Linda Library's final look.

"The exterior of the library's a real place, so just the foyer of the set matches with the front of the real location so that we could seamlessly bring you from one to the other," she said.

Some of the show's scenes were improvised.

Some of the show
Penn Badgley and James Scully on "You."      Netflix

One of the most notable improvised scenes is from season two, when Forty (James Scully) opened up about his childhood and how he believed he killed his au pair.

In a somewhat surprising move, Joe gets down on the ground and holds Forty as he cries.

"That was a version of that scene that Penn and I sort of created together," Scully explained in an interview with Glamour in 2019. "It's not what was written in the script, but we talked a lot about the relationship between Forty and Joe, which at that point was a little more than a friendship, obviously."

The show was mostly written, directed, and created by women.

The show was mostly written, directed, and created by women.
Caroline Kepnes, the author of "You."      Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

In 2018, Badgley told The Daily Beast that "by and large, all of the people responsible for this thing are women."

He added that the majority of the show's cast, directors, and writers are women.

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