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Sydney Sweeney Says ‘Euphoria’ Creator Allowed Her to Cut ‘Unnecessary’ Season 2 Nudity

Zack Sharf
·2-min read

Sydney Sweeney is championing “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson for allowing her to cut out nude scenes from the Emmy-winning HBO series’ second season. Speaking to The Independent, Sweeney said Levinson wrote in a lot more nude scenes for her character in Season 2 that she was able to remove without any challenge from the creator. Sweeney stars in the high school drama series as Cassie.

“Sam [Levinson] is amazing,” Sweeney said. “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, ‘OK, we don’t need it.’ I’ve 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.”

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Sweeney’s experience with nudity on “Euphoria” differs from other projects in the past. As the actor said, “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. That made me even more self-conscious. I didn’t feel like I was able to speak up.”

In her Independent interview, Sweeney also criticized viewers of the series for talking more about her nude scenes than her performance. She noted there’s a difference between the reception of her character in “Euphoria,” where she appears nude in several scenes, and the reception of her in other projects where she is not nude.

“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,” Sweeney said. “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 went on to call out the “stigma against actresses who get naked on screen,” noting, “When a guy has a sex scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise. But the moment a girl does it, it’s completely different.”

“Euphoria” Season 2 airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

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