Euphoria’s most ‘disturbing’ Sydney Sweeney scene yet sparks backlash for ‘going too far’
Topics: Euphoria, HBO, Sydney Sweeney, TV And Film, Social Media, Sex and Relationships
Madison Burgess
Featured Image Credit: HBO
Topics: Euphoria, HBO, Sydney Sweeney, TV And Film, Social Media, Sex and Relationships
Euphoria fans have ripped into the latest episode of the HBO show, claiming Cassie's storyline has 'gone too far' and is 'disturbing'.
The TV show returned with its third season last month - and it's certainly been bringing the shock factor.
Starring the likes of Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, and Hunter Schafer, Euphoria picks up after a five-year time jump, showing the group navigating adult life after graduating high school.
But with Rue becoming involved with drug dealers and strip club owners, Jules being a sugar baby, and Cassie turning to OnlyFans after finding herself in financial hot water, they haven't exactly gone for traditional career paths.
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Cassie's (Sweeney) storyline in particular has divided opinion and raised eyebrows among viewers, especially the latest episode, which dropped in the UK in the early hours of this morning (11 May).
It included some extremely NSFW scenes of the character filming content for the platform, with her ex-best pal Maddy (Alexa Demie) helping and working as her manager.
We see Cassie going to extreme lengths to film X-rated fetish content, such as sucking her own toes and going fully topless in front of a client.
She also does her own version of 'ASMR' by rubbing her cleavage on the microphone, before putting it, ahem, down there, and asking: "Do you want to hear my p***y?"
Not to mention the Godzilla-style scene of Cassie as a giant, breaking the glass on buildings with her boobs - yes, you read that right.
Other shots included the character getting intimate with herself before Maddy mailed Cassie's used panties to a client, skipping rope in a very low-cut jumpsuit, and wearing a barely-there police uniform.
Some fans think the raunchy scenes are pushing boundaries a little too much, branding them as 'disturbing' and a 'humiliation ritual' for Sweeney.
Taking to social media, one X user wrote: "Genuinely what the f*** was that opening??? I’m so f***ing done with this show #Euphoria."
While a second added: "In 7 mins I done seen Cassie suck her own toes, f*** about 5 dildos, show her t***ies #euphoria."
And a third agreed: "Was that Cassie scene necessary? I didn’t even understand it tbh #euphoria."
Another commented: "#euphoria has gone too far WTF."
Someone else said: "Tonight's episode was so disturbing. What happened to Euphoria?? Completely different show now."
And a final user penned: "This has got to be a humiliation ritual for Sydney Sweeney. They had to pay her good for that Godzilla reenactment."
After the first season of Euphoria premieres, Sweeney tells HuffPost: "The thing about the nudity in this show is that it’s not glamorised. It’s not, ‘Oh, here’s a pair of tits.’ It’s just real.
“I had to look at the whole picture of the entirety of the show, and I just fell in love with the rawness and the situations and the emotions that all these characters go through.”
Following the release of the second series, Sweeney reveals that on occasion she pushed back on the levels of nudity director Sam Levinson called for.
She tells The Independent: "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. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me."
Around the same time, she also calls out the double standard around nude scenes, telling Cosmopolitan: "There are hour-long compilations of world-famous male actors with nude scenes who win Oscars and get praised for that work. But the moment a woman does it, it degrades them."
The following year, Sweeney also reveals that fans are trolling her online with screenshots of Cassie's nude scenes.
She tells The Sun: "It got to the point where they were tagging my family. My cousins don’t need that. It’s completely disgusting and unfair.
"You have a character that goes through the scrutiny of being a sexualised person at school and then an audience that does the same thing."
In spite of the trolling over her nude scenes and the sexism she’s come up against, Sweeney says she’s not hesitant to perform nude scenes when a script calls for it.
She tells W Magazine: "I don’t get nervous. I think that the female body is a very powerful thing. And I’m telling my character’s story, so I owe it to them to tell it well and to do what needs to be done."
Tyla has contacted HBO and a rep for Sweeney for comment.