SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E11
or what they think she should
feel, about the nudity,” said Molly
Lambert, a pop culture reporter
and one of the sharpest observers
in the very active “Euphoria” on-
line universe. “But I also think the
nudity on the show is obviously
there to titillate. It’s not just plot-
driven, necessarily always. But it
is also plot-driven, which is that
her story line is that she’s getting
treated like a piece of meat by
everybody. ... Not taking her at
her word that she doesn’t feel
exploited [is] misogynist.”
While in clumsier hands Cassie
could seem pathetic, “[Sweeney]
is really funny. T hat’s what makes
her compelling,” Lambert said.
“She has an almost Cameron Diaz
energy: She’s the hot girl who is a
really good comedian. I think
she’s very good at doing the drag
of being a babe, but she seems, as
a person and an actress, to know
who she is: just sort of a regular
girl.”
Sweeney’s performance as
Cassie, Lambert added, “is offset
by the fact that Sydney Sweeney
herself seems really smart and
self-aware about the performance
she’s doing, and that she seems
nothing like the character.”
She pointed to Sweeney’s Tik-
To k account, @SydsGarage,
where Sweeney documents the
process of fixing up a 1969 Bron-
co. Contrary to her on-camera
style, “She’s just wearing a white
tank top and using a blowtorch to
fix a car. It just makes her seem
like she’s a real person.”
Sweeney’s “Euphoria” charac-
ter is ending the season with her
secret exposed, her life and sanity
apparently coming undone. (Apa-
tow: “Sydney plays a nervous
breakdown so well.”) In real life,
all of Sweeney’s efforts seem to be
coming together. She’s busy with
her own production company, F if-
ty-Fifty Films, and “Euphoria”
has been renewed for a third
season. And she feels like her
work is finally clicking with view-
ers, especially after “The White
Lotus” debuted, which sent some
“Euphoria” skeptics back to her
work on that series. “People are
like, ‘Oh, my God, where did she
come from?’ ” she says. But no-
body asks her that anymore. “Peo-
ple are now taking my perform-
ance more seriously and giving
me respect.”
She remembers traveling in
Europe after “The White Lotus”
aired and being recognized in
public more and more. “For the
first time I was getting followed
into stores,” she said, but “people
were scared to come up to me
because they thought I was going
to be mean like Olivia. I was like,
‘That’s not me, don’t worry.’ ”proach that I thought was pretty
funny,” White said. “Lots of ac-
tresses that did it in a little bit
more of a precocious way, or a
more traditionally comedic way
... they were landing the zingers.
She just had this disaffected,
blank way, [and] it was kind of an
original take. ... I don’t think she
has a lot in common with Olivia,
per se, but she ended up being the
perfect person.”
“She is, at the same time, just
incredibly savvy and professional
and smart, but also has this inno-
cence and naivete,” Britton said.
White knew he had something
special when they shot the scene
in which Olivia offers mock com-
fort to her dad (Steve Zahn) when
he finds out his father died of
AIDS complications and likely
had sex with men. “He could’ve
still been butch, Dad,” she assures
him.
“The way she landed those
lines,” White said. “This valley girl
slash intellectual slash little nym-
phet, it was like: Oh, my God, this
girl is going to steal this episode.”While the behavior of Cass-
ie and Olivia can be terri-
fying for different rea-
sons, Olivia’s malice and Cassie’s
desperation play very differently
on screen, in large part because of
how often Cassie is shown in
compromising positions without
clothes.
The graphic scenes in “Eupho-
ria,” particularly those featuring
Sweeney, have prompted some
criticism among viewers who
question exactly how much and
how often skin must be shown in
service of Cassie’s story. But
Sweeney says she finds the show’s
nudity “empowering.” She was
made to feel so self-conscious
about her body in high school,
where she was regularly dress-
coded for wearing the same
clothes as her peers with smaller
chests, she says. Now, she says, “I
actually feel more powerful with
my body. I feel more confident. I
feel more free.”
She reiterates that she has nev-
er felt “pressured” to do anything
explicit on “Euphoria” and that
Levinson recently added clothing
to a nude scene per her request. “I
said, ‘Sam, I don’t think that she
needs to be naked in the scene
and I don’t f eel comfortable doing
it. Everyone’s just going to look at
my boobs and not actually take
the scene seriously for the content
that’s happening.’ He was like,
‘Okay, yeah. You don’t have to do
that.’ ... I appreciate people being
worried ... but I’m totally fine on
‘Euphoria.’ ”
“I think that people are project-
ing a lot onto how she should feel,mates’ nicer cars. “It’s just a very
unhealthy environment to grow
up in.”
In time, Sweeney started
stringing together meatier parts.
She played a devout, doomed
young bride on Hulu’s “ The Hand-
maid’s Tale,” a psychiatric patient
on HBO’s “Sharp Objects,” a pas-
sionate drama kid on Netflix’s
one-season-wonder “Everything
Sucks!” Finally came the audition
notice that would change every-
thing, for a new HBO series that
promised to tell the unfiltered
truth about growing up with anxi-
ety and addiction: “Euphoria.”
During casting, information
was k ept largely under wraps, and
a handful of women were brought
in to read for just one part: Mad-
dy, Cassie’s best friend (played by
Alexa Demie). Sweeney was scan-
dalized by what little she could
learn — “I was like, ‘Oh, my God,
this show, my f amily’s g oing to kill
me’ ” — and initially passed on the
audition.
But the producers came back to
her, asking if she’d put herself on
tape for Cassie, a girl who falls for
every guy she dates but gets pillo-
ried for her alleged promiscuity.
Sweeney begged to read the full
pilot, which didn’t tell her much
more about her character (as
Sweeney puts it, “It’s literally just
Cassie getting naked on a bed”)
but did sell her on the series as a
whole. Though most young peo-
ple would probably die at the
thought of even watching “Eu-
phoria” with their parents (and
vice versa, no doubt), Sweeney
asked her mom to read with her
so she could submit a tape. She
requested more scripts and a call
with creator-writer-director Sam
Levinson, who told her more
about Cassie’s journey. “I knew I
could bring way more to Cassie
than what is just written,” says
Sweeney, who takes her character
development seriously, writing
entire books for every character
she plays, tracking their lives
from birth to the present day.
“It’s tricky with a character like
that, who is doing things that
most of the people watching the
show don’t agree with,” said
Maude Apatow, who plays Lexi,
Cassie’s sister. “But Sydney is so
thoughtful about her characters
and her preparation, and I think
she really loves the characters she
plays and creates these backsto-
ries for them ... [so] they seem so
vulnerable and complicated.
She’s never judging the parts that
she’s playing.”
White had seen some episodes
of “Euphoria” but didn’t recog-
nize Sweeney on her “White Lo-
tus” audition tape. “She had this
great, deadpan, monotone ap-
MOVIES‘She just has that thingthat makes someone a star’PHILIP CHEUNG FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTEDDY CHEN/HBOGEORGE KRAYCHYK/HULUTOP: Sweeney, 24, says she doesn’t even like her character on “The White
Lotus” and wouldn’t want to run into her in real life. She says of the nude
scenes on “Euphoria”: “I appreciate people being worried ... but I’m totally
fine.” MIDDLE: Sweeney in “Euphoria.” BOTTOM: In “The Handmaid’s Tale.”