Following the release of the teen drama television series Euphoria’s season 2, Sydney Sweeney (who plays Cassie Howard) shared that she asked the show’s creator to cut some ‘unnecessary’ nude scenes for her character in the new season.
In a recent interview with the Independent, Sweeney revealed that Euphoria’s creator and showrunner Sam Levinson had originally written more nude scenes for her character in the show, where the actor was able to remove without any sweat from Levinson.
“Sam [Levinson] is amazing,” the Euphoria star said. “There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless and I would tell Sam, ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here.’ He was like, ‘OK, we don’t need it.’”
Sweeney also shared that Levinson didn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to do. “I’ve never felt like Sam has pushed it on me or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me.”
She then added that, unlike Euphoria where she felt comfortable shooting it, she had other experiences in the past where she had felt disgusting and just “scrub herself completely raw.” “I didn’t feel comfortable with my cast mate or the crew, and I just didn’t feel like my character would be doing it. That made me even more self-conscious. I didn’t feel like I was able to speak up.”
Sweeney—who also starred in the critically-acclaimed television series The White Lotus where she portrayed Olivia Mossbacher—expressed her frustration as she felt that her performance in Euphoria isn’t much recognized as it is overshadowed by her character’s nude scenes.
“I’m very proud of my work in Euphoria. I thought it was a great performance. But no one talks about it because I got naked,” the star said.
She then called out the double standards in Hollywood, where there is a stigma surrounding actresses who get naked in front of a screen. “When a guy has a sex scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise. But the moment a girl does it, it’s completely different.”
Euphoria tells the story of a group of high school students who navigate their ways to find love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, and social media. Euphoria season 2 premieres every Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
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