Euphoria actor Alexa Demie has opened up about the pressure she felt early on in the series, admitting she was worried about losing her part if she refused to film nude scenes ahead of the season three finalé.
Demie, 35, has portrayed Maddy Perez since the HBO drama premiered in 2019, becoming one of the show’s most recognisable characters over the past seven years.
Across its run, and particularly during the third and final season, the series has faced repeated criticism for explicit and sexually graphic material, with creator Sam Levinson frequently fielding questions about how far the show goes.
In a new interview, Demie reflected on what it was like navigating intimate scenes at a young age, and how unsure she felt about what would happen if she pushed back.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, she admitted:
“I thought that if I said no to doing them [sex scenes], then I wouldn’t have the part.
“Not because anyone ever said that to me, but because I was so young and I didn’t know.”
She also revisited how uncomfortable she was while filming the first season, including multiple explicit scenes opposite Jacob Elordi, who plays Nate Jacobs.
Demie said her issue wasn’t with sex being depicted on screen, but with how the experience felt for her personally once she was in it.
“I’m not saying I don’t love sex,” she claimed, “I think it can be portrayed beautifully, and I know the show is portraying the life of teenage girls.”
She explained that after going through it, she realised she needed to speak up for herself moving forward.
Demie added:
“But once I did it, I realised, ‘OK, I don’t love how this feels’.
“So I said something, and everyone was empathetic, and I never did that again.”
Her comments arrive as other cast members have also faced intense public scrutiny over the show’s more explicit moments.
Sydney Sweeney, who plays Cassie, has been criticised by some viewers for scenes they felt were excessive—particularly during season three, when Cassie launches an OnlyFans account and the storyline leans further into shock value.
Levinson, however, has defended the creative approach and argued that pushing beyond comfort can sometimes unlock stronger work from performers.
Speaking at a Q&A for The Hollywood Reporter’s Directors In Focus event, he said:
“What’s interesting is if you push it a little bit, she becomes brilliant.
“You just do a few more takes, and she can reach these levels that are very honest emotionally, but also deeply funny.”
He continued:
“She’s able to anchor the scene with this kind of madness and chaos going on around her.”
Meanwhile, viewers noticed the most recent episode was promoted as a “season finale” rather than a “series finale,” which fuelled speculation that the show could potentially return despite earlier comments pointing toward an ending.
Before season three debuted, Levinson told Variety there were “no plans” for another season, although he also acknowledged he had once believed earlier seasons could have been the last.
After the finale aired, Levinson clarified to The New York Times that there would not be a fourth season, suggesting the story had reached its intended conclusion.
He told the outlet’s Podcast podcast:
“In terms of the story we set out to tell, which is a story about addiction and its consequences, this feels like the end to me.
“It was such a fulfilling journey in terms of this cast, the crew, what we were able to accomplish.
“There are thousands of things that have to go right in order to make something like this, and I’m just immensely proud of the work we did, the story we told, and it’s a tragic one in the end, but also it’s the truth.
“If you are experimenting or taking drugs today, it’s very possible it’ll kill you.”
When asked by the hosts if ‘that’s it, Euphoria ends here, with Rue’, Levinson responded:
“Yeah.”