Sweeney spoke to 'Teen Vogue' about her recent comments regarding the show and what's next for her now that season 2 has wrapped.
Sydney Sweeney is setting the record straight. In a new interview with Teen Vogue, Sweeney clarified comments she made about some topless scenes in Euphoria.
In a January interview The Independent, Sweeney told the publication, "There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless and I would tell Sam [Levinson, the show's screenwriter] ,'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 or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me."
While many publications took that as Sweeney asking for some of her character's "unnecessary" topless scenes to be cut from the show, the 24-year-old actress told Teen Vogue that that wasn't the case.
"I never asked him to cut any scenes," Sweeney told the magazine. "It got twisted and turned and it became its own beast, and I was like, 'Oh, my God.'"
What Sweeney was trying to get across rather was how Levinson pays attention to boundaries.
"It was more how respectful Sam is and how incredible of a director he is, that he would never make me do something I didn’t feel comfortable with," she continued, before explaining that Cassie's nude scenes are integral to her storyline.
"I think it’s important to the storyline and the character," Sweeney stressed "There’s a purpose to what that character is going through. That’s the character. We all get naked in real life. We show this character’s life and what they’re going through. Cassie’s body is a different form of communication for her."
Sweeney's not the only star to speak about the use of nudity on the hit HBO Max series.
Recently, Minka Kelly sat down for an interview with Vanity Fair and revealed exactly how her discomfort with one planned nude scene led to a rewrite by writer-creator Sam Levinson.
Kelly joined the HBO drama in the second season as Samantha, a wealthy would-be mentor of sorts to Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie), whom she hires as a babysitter for her son.
According to Kelly, she signed on with the expectation of it being for a single episode, but her chemistry with Demie led to Levinson stretching the role out to something more significant that spanned the rest of the second season.
However, on her very first day on set, Kelly said that there was one scene that she asked to have changed because she didn't feel right about the level of nudity involved. The scene in question, which was the second episode of season two, saw Samantha asking Maddy to help her unzip her purple dress.
While the scene already had intentionally disquieted sexual undertones, Kelly said the original planned version of the scene was even more risqué.
"[Levinson] thought it would be more interesting if my dress fell to the ground," Kelly said, recalling that she strongly disagreed with the direction.
"That was my first day as a guest on this new show, and I just didn't feel comfortable standing there naked," she shared. Ultimately, the scene was changed to not include the dress falling to the floor.
"I said, 'I’d love to do this scene, but I think we can keep my dress on,'" Kelly reflected. "[Levinson] was like, ‘OK!’ He didn’t even hesitate. And he shot a beautiful scene and got exactly what he wanted."
Check out the video below for more on the hit HBO drama series.
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