Warning: This post contains spoilers from the final season of You.
Penn Badgley knew it was time to say goodbye to You.
During his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, May 2, the 38-year-old actor, who stars as serial killer Joe Goldberg on the hit Netflix series, admitted he was “very ready for it to end” after five seasons.
“I was 30 when I took the role,” he explained. “It’s been close to eight years, but the way that ends up working out is that I will — I’m gonna be 40 by the end of next year and I’m probably still gonna be talking about it — so that’s my 30s right there.”
He called playing the dark character “a definitive event of my 30s,” adding, “That’s huge.”
Related: Why Penn Badgley ‘Fought to Be as Naked as Possible’ in You‘s Dramatic Season 5 Final Sequence (Exclusive)
When asked if he was happy with how the show ends, Badgley said “yeah” and noted it’s “a deconstruction of Joe, of this character.”
The final season finds Joe incarcerated after the many crimes he committed throughout the series caught up to him. The series concludes with a major, physical altercation with his new flame Bronte (Madeline Brewer), which only ends when police stop Joe in his tracks.
The Gossip Girl alum admitted the physical toll of the show came to a head during the final sequence.
“I’m expressing rage all the time on the show, and I’m, you know, it comes through your neck,” he explained. “It’s just like a lot of neck muscles involved.”
The PEOPLE App is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more!
Clifton Prescod/Netflix
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in episode 502 of ‘You’
Related: Penn Badgley Reveals Why His No Sex Scene Rule Was Axed in You‘s Final Season: ‘Had to Throw That Out the Window’ (Exclusive)
“I found that those muscles were just completely giving out, just entirely giving out,” he said of the final sequence. “I couldn’t manipulate my performance. I couldn’t do anything.”
“What I was doing I thought was very uninteresting, but all I could do is just kind of say everything like this,” he said in an intense, horse voice. “And I’m not kidding. That’s not an exaggeration.”
“It’s because of all the years, seasons of doing this show and you’re like my body was saying goodbye,” host Jimmy Fallon replied.
“It was everything,” Badgley concluded. “My body was saying no to this man.”
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
The actor previously told PEOPLE what he would miss about the show. “I think I will miss him a little bit. He’s been a profound experience for me,” he said, referring to his character.
Badgley added that Joe has “taught me a lot about what it is to be a man by knowing what it is not. And I don’t mean the obvious things like, ‘Oh, don’t murder. That’s bad.’ That’s very clear.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The final season of You is now streaming on Netflix.
Read the original article on People
