HBO’s Euphoria quickly became a show that was on almost everyone’s watchlist. Although the series sees Zendaya’s Rue Bennett as the main protagonist, the other characters shine just as brightly, if not more. One of these characters is Cassie Howard, played by actress Sydney Sweeney.
While Cassie might be a fan-favorite of the many viewers of the show, Sydney Sweeney believes that her work in Euphoria has been majorly overlooked by the critics and her skin-barring scenes might have something to do with it. However, the actress has made it quite clear that she felt absolutely comfortable while filming those scenes, thanks to creator Sam Levinson. On the other hand, she revealed that that was not always the case and that some experiences with n*de scenes made her want to scrub herself raw.
Sydney Sweeney Talks about Filming Explicit Scenes
In an interview with Independent, Sydney Sweeney stated that although her character in Euphoria had a lot of NSFW scenes, she did not feel uncomfortable while filming them. Giving the credit to creator Sam Levinson, Sweeney revealed that he would always pay attention to her notes for Cassie and if she felt as if the n*de scenes weren’t necessary, he would take them out of the script.
“Sam is amazing. 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. ‘Okay, we don’t need it.’…I have 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.”
However, this level of comfort and trust was unavailable for Sweeney in her past projects. She revealed that after filming explicit scenes in some projects, she would want to scrub herself till she was raw as she just wasn’t comfortable with it.
“I’ve had experiences where I want to go home and scrub myself completely raw because I feel disgusting…. I didn’t feel comfortable with my castmate or the crew, and I just didn’t feel like my character would be doing it.”
Previously, Sweeney had opened up about how the s*x scene in Nocturne was super uncomfortable to film as it was one of the first few scenes she shot, and didn’t really get to know anyone in the ensemble beforehand.
It’s great seeing Sweeney stand up for herself and speak up against doing something she is not entirely comfortable with. Her attitude towards filming such scenes could be an inspiration to upcoming actresses who feel like they cannot say no for the sake of their careers.
Sydney Sweeney Believes her Euphoria Role is Overlooked
Sweeney became the talk of the town with The White Lotus where she played Olivia Mossbacher. Despite the fact that Euphoria was released before it, Sweeney agrees that her hard work was finally getting appreciated after The White Lotus. This bothers the actress because she believes her work in Euphoria was great but is not given as much credit because of the fact that she got naked in it. She is unhappy with the way her work as Cassie was received.
“With The White Lotus, I felt like people were finally recognizing the hard work I’ve been doing. This is something that has bothered me for a while. 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. I do The White Lotus and all of a sudden critics are paying attention. People are loving me. They’re going, ‘Oh my God, what’s she doing next?’ I was like, ‘Did you not see that in Euphoria? Did you not see that in The Handmaid’s Tale?’”
Sweeney has also called out the double standards around nudity in the entertainment industry as she stated that women get degraded for doing the same thing men win Oscars for. She hopes she can play a role in turning that around and with her own production company, Fifty-Fifty films, she might just be on the road to change!
You can stream Euphoria and The White Lotus on HBO Max.
Source: Independent
