HBO’s Euphoria has been one of the most talked-about shows since it first premiered in June 2019.
Fans have raved about the unflinching portrayal of what it’s like to be a Gen-Z teen while critics have called it too graphic and explicit.
And it’s exactly for those reasons that star Sydney Sweeney, who plays Cassie Howard, was too scared to tell her family. In fact, she was too scared to even go down and audition in the first place.
She told StyleCaster,
“What’s crazy—and this is going to sound really bad—is when I first got sent the audition, I was too nervous to go do it.”
She continued,
“I grew up in a smaller town with my family, who are a little more conservative, and I was like, ‘They’re going to kill me if I do something like this.’”
But once Sydney read the script, she knew she had to go for it. She recalled,
“The audition got sent again to me. I read it again, and I was like, ‘This is so incredible. How could I pass an opportunity like this?’ I’ll just really try to explain this to my mom one day. I put myself on tape. I didn’t even go in, and I ended up booking it off the tape.”
In addition to the controversial topics explored in the show, there was one more reason why Sydney was hesitant to take the part: she had another offer on the table.
Turns out, Sydney had already landed a role on the Netflix series Chambers (the show was canceled after one season).
“Three days before, I booked a Netflix show. It was a straight-to-series. I would be a series regular, and I was really weighing my options. Do I go do a pilot for HBO on an incredible show but run the risk of not having a series? Or do I do a Netflix series that’s already picked up but my role is not as big?”
But after speaking to Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, she knew there was no way to turn it down.
“He just told me his vision and everything about what he sees and wants to achieve in the show. There was no way I could not be a part of this, so I signed on and here we are.”
In the series, Sydney plays Cassie Howard, a high schooler who wants to get past her promiscuous reputation as she enters into a new relationship.
Prior to starring in Euphoria, Sydney appeared in Sharp Objects, The Handmaid’s Tale, Pretty Little Liars, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Bling Ring.
She also recently starred in the Amazon movie Nocturne, a supernatural horror film. Sydney plays a talented high school pianist who becomes jealous when she becomes overshadowed by her twin sister.
Euphoria season 2 is expected to premiere either in late 2021 or early 2022. The series was supposed to resume filming in April 2021 but whether that’s true is currently unconfirmed.
In the meantime, you can watch Euphoria season 1 as well as the two special episodes on HBO Max.
The feature photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
