Euphoria creator says Sydney Sweeney is to blame for Cassie’s endless nude scenes in S3

*Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Euphoria season three episode eight*

After all the backlash, Sam Levinson has addressed the countless explicit scenes involving Cassie in Euphoria season three – and apparently it was all Sydney Sweeney’s idea. 

Rue’s (Zendaya) story takes centre stage in the Euphoria season 3 finale, and all of her decisions come to a head when Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) gives her some Fentanyl-laced Percocets, causing her to overdose and die. 

It’s a huge moment, but up until this point, the main player of the HBO show’s third (and final) chapter has been Cassie and her OnlyFans work. 

Ever since the premiere, we’ve seen her in a drug-fuelled threesome, as a giantess (whose nipples break through glass), and most controversial of all, dressing up as an “adult baby” for her OF followers. 

Levinson has been accused of writing Cassie’s storyline as a “humiliation ritual” as revenge for the many controversies Sweeney’s been involved in of late. 

However, the Euphoria creator has seemingly put these claims to bed in a new interview. 

Sydney Sweeney pushed for Cassie’s full nudity

Levinson appeared on the latest episode of Popcast, where host Joe Coscarelli asked about his creative relationship with Sweeney, highlighting the episode five “montage of her online sex work” and the fact “we don’t see a lot of A-list actresses doing that.”

According to the creator, he originally planned to cut the nudity from Euphoria season three, until Sweeney stepped in. 

“It’s funny, when I first wrote it, I thought, ‘Well, maybe we shoot all of this and we just don’t have any nudity,” Levinson said.

“And I was talking to her about, ‘Maybe there’s ways to shoot around certain things,’ and she looked at me and she’s like, ‘Are you kidding? I’m playing an OnlyFans model. You’re telling me you’re going to skirt around it?’

“I was like, ‘Yeah, okay. That’s a fair point.’ And so there’s always a discussion of what works best for the character.”

He went on to praise Sweeney, saying she’s a “fearless actor” and “wonderfully professional.”

“I adore working with her because there’s such a kind of flexibility in terms of the performance,” he continued. 

“I can say, ’Why don’t we try this scene just a little crazier, with a little more humour?’ and suddenly just this whole other version of the scene can come out just based on her performance.”

Levinson added that there’s a “lot of trust” between them. “And look, we’re tackling this world of OnlyFans where women are being paid to whisper into an earshaped microphone and lick it. There is a level of absurdity to it that is just fun.”

Why Euphoria season 3 is all about sex work

Elsewhere in the podcast, he addressed the wider question of why sex work was such a huge focus of Euphoria season three, a decision that’s sparked division among fans. 

Not only does Cassie get into OnlyFans, but Maddy (Alexa Demie) is basically a madam, Alamo runs a strip club/trafficking ring, and Jules (Hunter Schafer) is kept by a sugar daddy. 

Levinson first addressed Jules, saying it “felt true to that character”. “She’s very talented creatively speaking. She goes off to art school. In past seasons, she was doing random hookups,” he explained. 

“And I think that there’s something about not just the economy we’re in, but the fear of making it as an artist and trading that for security and comfort.”

For Cassie, he said, “She just wants to be loved. She wants to be adored… It feels to me like the natural progression of social media, whether it’s Instagram, any of these things, you’re the product, you’re the brand.

“It’s based around external validation, affirmation, and what is she going to get the most likes from?”

He said that the wedding was an excuse for her to “chase what she’s always wanted, which is to be loved by as many people as humanly possible.”

When asked whether that means it’s a coincidence that so many of the characters ended up in sex work, Levinson replied, “Well, it’s a byproduct of culture and what’s going on in terms of social media and where it’s headed.”

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Featured image credit: HBO