Drew Barrymore unleashed her inner scream queen during a recent taping of her talk show. In honor of her 48th birthday on Feb. 22, Barrymore’s cohost Ross Mathews decided to treat the “You” superfan to the full Joe Goldberg experience, complete with a life-size torture chamber and appearance from Penn Badgley himself.
Barrymore has starred in countless thrillers and embraces the Halloween spirit, making the gift almost too much to handle. “This is the most exciting blindfolding experience I’ve ever had,” Barrymore said as Mathews led her into a glass box. The setup was strikingly similar to the one Joe (Badgley) uses to trap his victims in the Netflix series, which recently premiered its fourth season.
Seconds later, Mathews instructed Barrymore to remove the blindfold, sending her into a screaming fit as Badgley appeared and tapped on the glass. Overwhelmed, Barrymore fell to her knees while Badgley peered inside the enclosure. “It’s not supposed to be this way!” Badgley said. As another early birthday gift, Badgley gifted Barrymore a bottle of stain remover adorned with a silver bow. “Here, this is a birthday gift for you. I know that you like to remove stains,” the “You” star told her as he pushed the bottle through a double-sided drawer embedded in the glass.
As Barrymore cradled the bottle of cleaner in awe, Badgley took a moment to remind her that his “You” character – Joe Goldberg, aka Jonathan Moore – is, in fact, a serial killer. “You’re not supposed to want this,” he said, referring to the fact that many fans of the series romanticize Joe despite his gruesome crimes.
While Badgley rarely misses an opportunity to emphasize his character’s toxicity in interviews, Barrymore couldn’t help but express her excitement for the immersive birthday surprise. “You know me so well,” she said as the audience broke into laughter.