Featured Image Credit: HBO
Topics: Euphoria, Jacob Elordi, Streaming, Film and TV
William Morgan
Euphoria's third season has been packed with ups and downs for its main cast, no more so than in its third instalment on Sunday night, where the episode ends with Nate... struggling to put the right foot forward.
Now, if you want to avoid any spoilers for Euphoria's third episode, you should probably stop reading now, as 'The Ballad of the Paladin' is more like Game of Thrones' 'Red Wedding' than a fairytale of star-crossed lovers.
That's because, despite Sydney Sweeney's character Cassie's work on OnlyFans to fund her dream nuptials, a man named Naz has come to gatecrash their event and to collect more than just some pho-toe-graphs of the wedding.
If you've seen the episode, you know the bloody moment being referred to here, and it's not the newlyweds kissing under some mistle-toe.
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Jack Topalian, who plays Naz, has explained publicly what it was like to shoot the brutal scene, as well as a key detail that could have seen Jacob Elordi maimed for real.
"There’s a cutting of a particular body part that my character takes great pleasure in doing," Topalian explained to Page Six about the gruesome scene, where he severs Nate's toe over a $500,000 debt.
This debt causes Nate to have a panic attack before he even sees Cassie walk down the aisle, with Naz repeatedly ringing his phone before the wedding to find out where his half a million is.
With his debtor refusing to pick up his phone, Naz then crashes the couple's glamorous wedding. There, he finds Nate and promises to be his 'worst nightmare' if he cannot repay him for their failed real estate venture.
He doesn't wait long to collect either, turning up at the new couple's home to brutalize Nate and send a terrified Cassie into hysterics. After his henchman has kicked seven bells out of him, that's when Naz comes in with some clippers.
Naturally, of course, this toe is a 'prosthetic', Topalian added as he elaborated on the brutal beating that Elordi's character takes at the end of the cliffhanger-filled third episode.
Topalian, who has also appeared in Emily the Criminal (2022) and The Mummy (2026), said he had to be pretty careful to ensure the actor kept all his digits.
“The clippers that they gave me have pretty sharp edges. So I had to be really mindful of that, because at one point, I do put it around Jake’s toe,” the Armenian star added. “If I squeezed a little too hard, it would literally cut his toe.
“But, everything turned out well! There were no mishaps, no accidents.”
He also praised his henchman in the scene, NFL player and Super Bowl champ Matt Willig, who Topalian described as a 'gem of a person', adding: “He’s an amazing actor as well.
“So, he ends up doing all the dirty work… [My character is] the kind of guy where I’m not going to get my hands dirty – but, I’m going to get my money, one way or another.”
The brutal scene took days to shoot, with Nate getting roughed up all over the house.
“There’s a lot of physicality involved with Jacob and Matthew. Jacob did a lot of his own stunts,” Topalian added.
Despite all the beatings and maiming, the character actor said that Elordi was fun to film with. He said: “Obviously, he gets back into character really quickly.
“But once [the director calls ‘cut’] even though he’s been beaten and abused, he’s still having a lot of fun. He’s still cracking jokes and doing things like that.”