Sydney Sweeney Refused to Let Euphoria Cut Nude Scenes in Season 3

“Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson says he considered shooting Season 3 without any nudity for Cassie, the character that launched Sydney Sweeney’s career and has often sparked criticism for over-sexualization. But Sweeney nipped that idea in the bud.

In an interview with the New York Times, Levinson was asked about his relationship with Sweeney and her comfort with performing the mature content “Euphoria” requires 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. “And she looked at me and she was like, ‘Are you kidding? I’m playing an OnlyFans model. You’re telling me you’re going to, like, skirt around it?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, OK, that’s a fair point.’”

The Times also asked Levinson about “complaints that there’s nudity when there doesn’t need to be” in the first two seasons of “Euphoria,” during which the characters were in high school. “From the script, you get a sense of what the role requires,” he said. “Even when you go up to audition, let’s use the role of Cassie, you know the role requires a certain amount of nudity. Are you comfortable? If they’re comfortable, they get the role, then the next layer is the intimacy coordinator. I think it’s a SAG rule that if an actor then says, after getting cast, ‘Actually, I don’t want to do that,’ we can’t force them to do a scene.”

He continued emphasizing the importance of protecting actors: “I believe very strongly that the best, most honest performances are when an actor feels free and safe. That’s how you get a great performance. You can’t if there is any tension. The emotion is going to be blocked. And that’s something I’ve known from my days of studying acting. So my job is to create the kind of best, most conducive environment for the actor to play this character.”

Levinson praised Sweeney as a “totally fearless” and “wonderfully professional” actress, saying, “There’s a lot of trust that we have.” He added: “And look, we’re tackling this world of OnlyFans where women are being paid to, like, whisper into an ear-shaped microphone. There is a level of absurdity to it that is just fun and we’re always trying to come up with ways to make it feel authentic and humorous and dramatic and also speak to the larger wants and wishes of the character.”

Read Variety‘s recap of the “Euphoria” series finale here, in addition to interviews with supporting star Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and guest star Colman Domingo.