Euphoria creator slammed for 'disgusting' Sydney Sweeney scene involving NSFW act
Topics: Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney, HBO, Film and TV
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Topics: Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney, HBO, Film and TV
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson is facing another wave of backlash after Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) tried to take her OnlyFans career to the next level this week.
New episodes of the show's third season have been airing every Sunday, and with each week comes fresh controversy.
Even the Euphoria trailers have led to a deluge of outraged tweets, as one depicted Sweeney's character dressed up as a baby while recording adult content for OnlyFans.
The backlash has since continued and viewers branded a scene with Chloe Cherry (who stars as Faye) as 'gross' as there was a Nazi flag in the background of an X-rated moment.
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Now, in the wake of the latest episode airing, yet more controversy has been caused.
Again involving Sweeney's character Cassie, she kickstarts her OnlyFans career again and eyes an influencer named Brandon Fontaine to help her get back on the map.
With Maddy in tow, Cassie goes to Brandon's home for a party dressed in a leopard print catsuit. Maddy urges her friend to tempt Brandon 'with p***y', but not to actually give it him.
Next thing you know Cassie's doing coke with Brandon and unzips her bodysuit to allow him to do a line off her body. He proceeds to rub some of the drugs into her crotch area...
People have since reacted to the very NSFW scene online and questioned why Levinson has made this season of Euphoria particularly graphic.
"Between Kitty getting f**ked and Cassie snorting the coke off of the girl tummy uhm Sam Levinson once again disgusting," one critic said on social media.
"Cassie rubbing coke on her meow meow this #euphoria s**t gets weird I’m OUT," said a second.
It comes after Levinson said he wanted Cassie's OnlyFans storyline to feel 'gnarly and jarring'.
He told the Hollywood Reporter: "Some of these scenes we only lit with these ring lights that she would use. When you’re inside, it’s a beautiful, glowing front light, but then you jump out of it and it’s just a pool of light and everything surrounding it is dark.
"It’s just gnarly and jarring. We wanted to capture what she’s trying to show the audience and be inside of it, but then also pull back wider and see how depressing it is."
From what Euphoria favorite Zendaya has said, the latest explosive season of the HBO series will be the last.
Drew Barrymore asked the actress if season three will be the final one, to which The Drama star said: "I think so, yeah."
Barrymore pressed further: "I never want to ask questions like that, because it’s not my business, and yet, is this to be enjoyed knowing [it will end]?"
"Yes, I think so," Zendaya reaffirmed.
2026 is a massively busy year for Zendaya. So far, the star's been seen in Euphoria and A24's The Drama, and she will also feature in blockbuster movies Dune: Part Three, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.
In light of her intense year, the 29-year-old has said that she plans to 'disappear for a little while' once all of her latest projects have been released.
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."