Sam Levinson has made headlines after he shared his take regarding the controversy around Sydney Sweeney’s character Cassie Howard. The Euphoria creator has addressed the backlash that followed the HBO drama’s third season specifically. The criticism had been building for weeks after the finale aired before Levinson decided to say something.
Sam Levinson shared his thoughts on a recent episode of Real Time With Bill Maher. The showrunner sat across from Maher and explained exactly why he wrote a s*x work storyline for Cassie into the season. It came down to money, really.
“It is making as much money as Hollywood. I mean, essentially it’s on par,” he said.
That scale, in his view, is the whole point. Levinson shared that young people are now genuinely sizing it up as an alternative to the traditional nine-to-five.
“It’s not a niche business, it is a massive enterprise. And so if you’re young, you’re going … ‘I don’t want to go work in a nine to five at this place or that thing. Well, maybe I can just start taking photos of myself?'” he added.
Levinson confirmed the storyline was his way of exploring
“the long-term consequences of that.”
Sam Levinson defends Sydney Sweeney’s Euphoria storyline and questions the critics:
Levinson addressed the backlash directly during the appearance. He acknowledged on Real Time With Bill Maher that he and the Euphoria cast and crew “caught a lot of criticism” over Sydney Sweeney’s s*x work scenes. That being said, he put a question to the critics too, wondering aloud if the reaction would have been any different had the show gone and “affirmed this life” altogether.
“You know, we take a fairly critical look at it. It hollows out the individual. You know, you’re constantly just depending on the likes and external validation,” Levinson said.
He also went into what drew him to Cassie’s storyline creatively.
“What happens when, you know, as a young person, you’re on Instagram … and you’re told that you’re the product, you’re the brand, and now you’re 18 years old, and you’re going, ‘Well, how do I make money?'” he shared.
Levinson added that it was the appeal of quick money that he found worth exploring as a writer.
“And I just thought chasing that desire, that kind of fast cash, was an interesting thing to kind of explore,” he recalled.
Sydney Sweeney pushed back when Sam Levinson floated cutting nudity from Euphoria:
Sam Levinson once considered shooting season three without any nudity for Cassie but Sydney Sweeney shut the idea down.
Levinson detailed the exchange in an interview with the New York Times. He was asked about his relationship with Sydney Sweeney and her comfort level with the mature content Euphoria required of her.
“Well, it’s funny. When I first wrote it, I was like, ‘Maybe we shoot all of this and we don’t have any nudity. Maybe there’s ways to shoot around certain things?'” Levinson said.
Sydney Sweeney had a simple counter. Her character now works as an adult site model.
“And I was like, ‘Yeah, OK, that’s a fair point,'” Levinson shared.
Edited by Ryan D’souza