Euphoria creator defends Sydney Sweeney after backlash to racy season 3 scenes
Sam Levinson and Sydney Sweeney (Image: Getty Images)
Sam Levinson has praised Sydney Sweeney’s on-set work on Euphoria, saying she “becomes brilliant” when he “push[es] it a little bit” during the show’s high-pressure filming process.
Speaking at The Hollywood Reporter’s Directors in Focus event, the creator and director discussed working with Sweeney, 28, who plays Cassie Howard. In season three, fans have watched as Cassie takes on adult work, trying to become a star online.
Levinson said: “What’s interesting is if you push it a little bit, she becomes brilliant…”
He added: “You just do a few more takes, and she can reach these levels that are very honest emotionally, but also deeply funny. She’s able to anchor the scene with this kind of madness and chaos going on around her.”
A key scene was changed on the day of the shoot, and Levinson praised Sweeney for adapting to the last-minute shift.
Zendaya’s physical comedy
Levinson also praised Zendaya’s performance style, pointing to a sequence in which Rue tries to escape a Jeep on top of a border wall.
“What’s so spectacular about Zendaya as an actor is the physicality that she has, and I think it goes back to her Disney training, that she’s able to move with such humour and tell a story,” he said.
Backlash to Sweeney’s scenes
In Euphoria season three, viewers have seen Sweeney in various stages of undress, or in saucy outfits dressed as a dog or adult baby, as she pursues a career on OnlyFans.
Some blasted the decision to go down that route, branding it a “humiliation ritual”.
However Sweeney has previously spoke against the “double standard” in acting, when it comes to men and women having raunchier scenes.
Speaking to Cosmpolitan magazine in 2022, she said: “I don’t think as many people took me seriously in Euphoria because I took my shirt off … There’s such a double standard. I really hope I can have a little part in changing that.”
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