Penn Badgley’s popularity refuses to wane after his chilling portrayal of psychopath ‘Joe Goldberg’ in Netflix’s hit show ‘You’. But when it comes to real life, there is this strange curiosity that has developed over his tooth gap.
There seems to be a little gap between the front teeth of the 37-year-old actor that you just can’t miss after seeing him smile.
Badgley has been in the acting business for nearly two decades now, with his first breakthrough role coming in the soap opera The Young and the Restless – where he portrayed Phillip Chancellor IV. As a child, he did theatre acting and even dreamed of being a musician when he was 12, but ended up discarding that to pursue acting.
After his breakthrough role as Phillip Chancellor IV, Badgley started to get more roles once he became an adult. He has been part of some notable TV shows and movies, being primarily known for his role in the CW teen drama Gossip Girl and movies like Easy A, Margin Call and John Tucker Must die.
He has since having been named among People Magazine’s ’25 Beauties (and Hotties) under 25’ list in 2011. However, the majority of Badgley’s current popularity stems from his portrayal of the main character in the Netflix show ‘You’ – where he portrays this character who stalks women and then goes on a murder spree for those who ignore or incite him.
The first season of the show saw 40 million people view it within the first month of its launch on Netflix and it has since become one of the most-watched shows on the platform, stretching four seasons long. Badgley has become a hero for many for his brilliant portrayal of the psychopath, gaining attraction for his good looks.
But as the obsession around him spiralled out of control and he started smiling more for the cameras or take part in interviews, it was soon discovered that he had a visible tooth gap.
So when Badgley’s tooth gap was discovered, his beloved supporters actually fell in love with how it made him look even more attractive. That is because it showed that even this guy who portrays a larger-than-life character on the TV screen can be normal and have relatable issues as anyone.
Badgley is suffering from a condition called ‘Diastema’ which refers to the gap in your teeth. This can happen to anyone and is something that can occur anywhere in one’s mouth, but is most common among the two frontal teeth.
Going by pictures of young and old (now) Badgley, it’s evident that he’s had this problem for a long time and it’s only started gaining traction after his success with ‘You’.
A sense of fascination has been created by this aspect of him, because it is actually quite unique for a well-known celebrity to still have a condition like this.
More than anything else, with Badgley not being shy from showing his tooth gap – he can only influence millions of others with a similar condition to not be scared of smiling for photographs and have their own tooth gaps exposed.
There seems to be a weird fascination with celebrity teeth on social media, be it trying to find how perfect the teeth can be or aspects of imperfection as well.
In Badgley’s case, it seems like the imperfection in his teeth has actually added to his attractiveness and how realistically good looking he is perceived to be.
The social media platforms like Twitter or TikTok have a lot of people working to find quirky aspects of a celebrity’s personality or physical attributes. When it comes to Badgley himself, an interesting TikTok video created by a dentist ‘Dr Sara’ has captured his entire dental journey ‘analyzing’ his tooth gap.
Well, considering that Badgley has done nothing about his tooth gap for the last 10-15 years so far and how this weird attribute is seemingly adding to his sex appeal – it’s unlikely that he will get it fixed anytime soon.
