Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney, who plays Cassie Howard on the fan-favorite HBO series, has opened up about feeling that her acting on Euphoria is not taken as seriously on the show due to the amount of on-screen nudity. Sweeney has been widely praised for her performance in The White Lotus, another hit HBO series. The actor plays Olivia Mossbacher on the comedy-drama show, one of many extremely unlikable but no less entertaining characters in the wealth satire set in a holiday resort.
Euphoria, on the other hand, is well known for its mature adult content, including graphic nudity and depictions of teenagers engaging in drug use, sex and violence. Sweeney's character Cassie Howard is no exception, and has several scenes in the show in which she is shown nude. The actor recently revealed that she mostly felt comfortable with the nudity, and that Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has always been supportive of her personal preferences, removing nudity when Sweeney didn't feel it was necessary to the scene. In the current Euphoria season 2, Cassie in the midst of a romantic storyline, but Sweeney also did some of her best dramatic work in episode 3, in which Cassie makes a heartfelt confession to her friends.
In an interview with The Independent, Sweeney expressed her gratitude for the praise she’s received for her work in The White Lotus, while also sharing her dismay that her Euphoria performance is not treated the same way. Sweeney shared that she believes this is because of the nudity on the show, saying “no one talks about it because I get naked.” She also believes there is a "stigma" in the way actresses are depicted in the media when they do nude scenes, compared to male actors who receive only "praise." Read Sweeney's full comments below.
“With The White Lotus, I felt like people were finally recognising 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?… There’s a stigma against actresses who get naked on screen. 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.”
Sweeney's point is a a valid one, and addresses the clear sexism shown by the wider media as it relates to actresses. In recent years, journalists have been ridiculed on social media for their sexist treatment of female movie and TV stars during interviews, often focussing on superficial things like costume and make-up over character development or production details. Female roles are often over-sexualized in entertainment generally, and women are often the focus of more nude scenes than men. In fact, Sweeney’s Euphoria character was originally set to have more scenes involving nudity, but the actress asked creator Levinson to re-work the sequence to avoid it, which she says he always did.
Sweeney’s performance in Euphoria is excellent, not to mention illuminating as to the heartbroken mindset of her character. The nudity was a very small part of a much larger, emotional role, and a commentary on Cassie feeling unwanted and unloved . Though Sweeney may not feel the wider industry has taken notice of her work on Euphoria, audiences certainly have, as Cassie has been a fan-favorite from season 1. And with stellar performances in not only Euphoria, but shows like The White Lotus and The Handmaid's Tale, there's no doubt that Sweeney will get plenty more chances to show critics her acting chops.
Source: Independent