The creator of Euphoria, Sam Levinson, defended the nude scenes with Sydney Sweeney in season 3.
If you had to boil down the basic premise of Euphoria, it would be this: everyone loved season 1 in 2019, and everyone hated season 3 in 2026. What happened in between? The other show from Sam Levinson, The Idol, in 2023, with heavy backstage rumors (director Amy Seimetz reportedly fired to scrap much of the project and restart from scratch in a toxic atmosphere according to a Rolling Stone investigation); allegations of plagiarism surrounding Euphoria, which allegedly pilfered the work of photographer Petra Collins; and plenty of questions about how the writer-director treats female bodies.
Season 3 of Euphoria doesn’t minces words, and after The Idol’s misfires, it confirms that Sam Levinson may indeed have a soft spot for Showgirls—whether that’s for the right reasons remains to be seen. Now that HBO’s series has officially wrapped, as had been anticipated given the post–season 2 crew challenges, the creator has little choice but to address and defend his choices. Notably around the character portrayed by Sydney Sweeney.
EUPHORIA: NOTHING TO UNDERSTAND
It was with the New York Times that Sam Levinson was questioned about Sydney Sweeney’s role in season 3 and the treatment of nudity as Cassie turns to OnlyFans to get rich and famous. The insinuation being: was the actress truly comfortable with all of this?
“It’s funny, when I wrote that at the beginning, I thought maybe we could shoot all of this without any nudity, maybe there are ways to dodge some things? And she looked at me and said: you’re kidding? I’m playing an OnlyFans model. Do you mean you’re going to tiptoe around it? And I thought: yeah, okay, that’s true.”
The writer-director who crafted, wrote, and directed all of season 3 continues:
“I think she’s a fearless actress. She’s incredibly professional and gives 100 percent every day. I love working with her because she’s so flexible in her acting. There’s a lot of trust between us.”
“And then we dive into this world of OnlyFans where women are paid to whisper into an ear-shaped mic. There’s an absurd side to it that’s simply funny, and we always try to find ways to render it authentic, humorous and dramatic, while reflecting the character’s deeper ambitions and desires.”
Further on, he lays out the logical path for Cassie, and for all the other female characters who touch sex in various ways:
“From the very first episode of this show, Cassie just wants to be loved. She wants to be adored. I feel that this is the natural evolution of social media, whether it’s Instagram or any other platform: you are the product, you are the brand. Everything rests on other people’s recognition. (…) I think it’s a consequence of the culture and what’s happening on social networks, the direction it’s taking. I think they’re all forms of mild prostitution.”
Euphoria wound up concluding after seven years, three seasons, and 26 episodes. Given the colossal failure of The Idol, canceled after one season, Levinson’s career trajectory may not be as glorious as once imagined.
On the other hand, Sydney Sweeney is riding high, with a slate of projects in the pipeline: the drama The Maid with Kirsten Dunst; the horror film The Caretaker by David Bruckner; Scandalous! directed by Colman Domingo, in which she will portray Kim Novak, the famous star of Hitchcock’s Vertigo; an adaptation of the video game Split Fiction; the thriller I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl; an adaptation of Gundam; Edgar Wright’s remake of Barbarella; the drama The Custom of the Country; a new version of Sleepy Hollow, titled Hollow… all while launching her own production company, Honey Trap.
