Jameela Jamil opted out of You audition to avoid doing intimate scenes: ‘I can’t even watch sex scenes in films’

Actor-model Jameela Jamil has revealed she skipped the audition for the fourth season of You as she doesn’t feel comfortable “doing sex scenes”. The Good Place star shared her thoughts on the Podcrushed podcast, hosted by You star Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin and Sofia Ansari.

Jamil said she was initially supposed to audition for the latest season of the crime drama series, but when she learned her “character was supposed to be quite sexy”, she “pulled out of the audition, because I am so shy about anything sexy that I can’t.”

While the actor didn’t disclose which role she was set to audition for, she referenced series lead Badgley’s past comments on asking showrunner Sera Gamble for fewer sex scenes in the series. Jamil also praised Badgley for refusing to do sex scenes in “You”.

“And then you f****** came out and was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing sex scenes anymore…“And I was like, ‘F****** hell, I didn’t even know that was a boundary that we could draw. That’s fantastic.’ But then I was like, ‘I should have gone and done the f****** show’,” she said.

Jamil, also known for She Hulk: Attorney At Law and The Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, said she “can’t even watch sex scenes in films”. “Even on my own, I have to fast-forward through sex scenes because I’ve become so shy about watching other people. It’s not a shame… I feel there’s an awkwardness around it,” she added.

The actor, during the podcast, said she doesn’t identify as “someone who would have enjoyed objectifying myself, personally” “But that’s also because I have so much deep, like, childhood, like, sexual trauma stuff. So I think that was never in the cards for me. You know, I still wear the little skirt or the busty top, but like, occasionally. But generally, I feel quite protective of myself in that way,” Jamil said.