Sydney Sweeney Defends Euphoria’s OnlyFans Nudity Choices

Sydney Sweeney said her early conversations with series creator Sam Levinson centered on Cassie becoming an OnlyFans model in “Euphoria” Season 3—and that she pushed for the nudity to be handled fully for the storyline. She also shared a deleted club-and-pole-

Sydney Sweeney walked into the conversation about Cassie’s OnlyFans turn in “Euphoria” Season 3 knowing exactly what was at stake: whether the show would commit to the full, messy truth of who Cassie is.

In early discussions with series creator Sam Levinson. Sweeney unpacked the direction for Cassie—an insecure high school senior who pivots to online sex work after her husband. Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi). faces financial collapse in the final season of the HBO drama. Levinson’s plan included help from Cassie’s ex-best friend Maddy (Alexa Demie). as the pair built a small OnlyFans empire.

Sweeney said those changes were already in the early third-season scripts. In an interview with Vanity Fair, published Tuesday, the Emmy nominee described understanding why Levinson took Cassie in that direction even if she wouldn’t make the same choices herself.

“I told him, ‘Look, I’m playing a character.’ Do I agree with all of Cassie’s decisions?. Would I personally make these choices?. No, of course not,” she said. “But I’m an actor and that’s my job and this is Cassie’s life and to be able to do her justice and play her how she’s to be played is to bring Sam’s vision to life and to play Cassie in the most vulnerable and insane way possible.”.

When asked about how comfortable she felt with the level of nudity the storyline required, Sweeney said she had long discussions with Levinson and ultimately decided she needed to follow through wholeheartedly to authentically bring Cassie to life.

Levinson, in an interview published last week, said he originally considered writing the OnlyFans scenes with no nudity—but Sweeney insisted the show shouldn’t shy away if they were going to go all in.

Sweeney connected the plot move to something deeper inside Cassie, too: an endless pull toward validation. “From the very beginning, you can see that Cassie has this need to be loved. She has a need to be validated by other people,” she said. “She doesn’t know how to love herself unless someone else loves her. So I understand how Sam got her to where she was in season three. I think she was more excited by the idea of all these people loving her and knowing who she is and feeling like her world isn’t small.”.

The conversation didn’t stop with what made it on screen. Sweeney also revealed there were scenes she wished had stayed. She described a club visit where Cassie and Maddy go out—and Cassie gets wasted and pole dances with the strippers.

“It was one scene where her character gets wasted and pole dances with the strippers. ” Sweeney said. explaining how Cassie watches the women on stage and becomes electrified by what she sees: “Cassie starts to see the girls on stage and she gets really excited. She’s like, ‘Wow, these girls are beautiful. I could do this,’” she said. “I did lessons for pole dancing, and it was so much fun. Imagine crazy Cassie on a pole, which was hilarious. But man, these girls are strong.”.

Vanity Fair asked whether she thought HBO would release the moment as bonus footage. Sweeney said Levinson told her there was a chance.

“Sam called me a couple days before the episode that the scenes were supposed to be in. He was like, ‘Hey, it didn’t make sense for the episode,’” she said. “But he was like. ‘Maybe we should release it as like behind-the-scenes footage or deleted scenes.’ I was like. please do. because I put a lot of hard work into that.”.

“The third and final season of ‘Euphoria’ is available to stream on HBO Max.”

Sydney Sweeney Euphoria Sam Levinson Cassie OnlyFans HBO Max Vanity Fair Jacob Elordi Alexa Demie Nate Jacobs Maddy Season 3