Euphoria has stayed in the spotlight for months, with talk ranging from alleged on-set tensions to renewed debate over Sydney Sweeney’s explicit scenes.
The HBO series first premiered in 2019 and quickly turned into a worldwide hit, though it has repeatedly found itself at the center of online controversy.
Speculation about a rift between Zendaya (Rue) and Sweeney (Cassie) circulated widely, but those claims were dismissed by Jessica Herman, who plays Heather.
Discussion has also focused on creator Sam Levinson, with reports suggesting some members of the cast were unhappy about the volume of graphic content. Colman Domingo appeared to downplay that narrative when she told the Guardian ‘things get blown out of proportion’.
Now, Chloe Cherry — who plays Faye Valentine — has weighed in on Levinson’s approach, while acknowledging that not everyone responds to it the way she does.
“I think it’s because he is so specific about how everything needs to be,” she said in an interview with Glamour.
“And there’s some people that I guess just don’t like how he’s so specific with how he imagines everything in the show. I just think that I’m a particular actor that just likes how Sam Levinson directs.”
Cherry then described what she says she enjoys most about working with him — including his tendency to switch things up on set.
“I like the fact that on set he’ll randomly change his mind,” she said. However, she said other people may find Levinson’s ways ‘too much,’ especially as he’s ‘so sure of everything that the characters wear and say’.
Earlier this month, Levinson addressed the backlash around the number of NSFW moments featuring Sweeney, which has drawn criticism from some viewers online.
Many were even branding the scenes as a ‘humiliation ritual’.
Still, during a Q&A at The Hollywood Reporter’s Directors In Focus event, Levinson praised the actor and pointed to what he believes her performances reveal when pushed further.
“What’s interesting is if you push it a little bit, she becomes brilliant,” he said. “”You just do a few more takes, and she can reach these levels that are very honest emotionally, but also deeply funny,” he continued.
Levinson also spoke highly of Zendaya, calling her work ‘spectacular’.
With only one episode left in the third season — and the surprising death of Nate (Jacob Elordi) in the penultimate installment — the finale is now set up to deliver whatever comes next.