Euphoria creator Sam Levinson is addressing the intense online backlash surrounding Sydney Sweeney’s character, Cassie Howard, and her season 3 OnlyFans character arc.
“If you look at OnlyFans, it is making as much money as Hollywood. I mean, essentially it’s on par,” Levinson, 41, said on the Friday, June 19, episode of Real Time With Bill Maher about the storyline and the swift condemnation it received from fans of the hit HBO Max series and real-life sex workers alike.
“It’s not a niche business, it is a massive enterprise,” he continued. “And so if you’re young, you’re going … ‘I don’t want to go work in a nine to five at this place or that thing. Well, maybe I can just start taking photos of myself?’”
In the third and final season of Euphoria, Sweeney’s Cassie films herself in a slew of naked or near-naked scenes in which she cosplays various sexual fantasies for her online clients and admirers, including adult baby play, foot fetishes, dominatrix work and more. For many of the scenes, Sweeney was topless or near-naked, sparking online backlash about how both her and her character were portrayed on screen.
“She has a need to be validated by other people,” Sweeney, 38, told Vanity Fair in a June interview. “She doesn’t know how to love herself unless someone else loves her. So I understand how Sam got her to where she was in season 3. I think she was more excited by the idea of these people loving her and knowing who she is and feeling like her world isn’t small.”
Sydney Sweeney and Sam Levinson Getty Images
She continued at the time, “He actually, as we were finishing up season 2, started hinting at different ideas that he was putting together for season 3. And it was very similar to season 1 and season 2, he would call me, usually a few weeks after we wrapped, and he pitched me the entire idea. So I knew years before we started filming season 2 that I would be married to Nate, we’d be living in a suburban neighborhood and Cassie would be crazier than ever.”
On Friday, Levinson said that as a creator he was interested in exploring the “long-term consequences” of online sex work, like OnlyFans.
“What happens when you know, as a young person, you’re on Instagram … and you’re told that you’re the product, you’re the brand, and now you’re 18 years old, and you’re going, well, ‘How do I make money?’” he said. “And I just thought chasing that desire, that kind of fast cash, was an interesting thing to kind of explore.”
Sydney Sweeney is seemingly saying goodbye to Euphoria season 3 much like her on-screen character, Cassie Howard — with a bang. “It’s called… acting,” Sweeney, 28, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, May 31, alongside several behind-the-scenes and on-screen photos of the actress during what many believe to be the final season of the hit HBO […]
He added of the backlash, “You know, we take a fairly critical look at it. It hollows out the individual. You know, you’re constantly just depending on the likes and external validation.”
Levinson also discussed what he said is an added layer to Sweeney’s character’s arch — social media and how pervasive the online influencer culture can be for young people.
“I mean, if you’re constantly taking photos of yourself and selling yourself online,” he explained, “it’s the natural evolution of it.”
