Euphoria recently wrapped up its run on television, with its three seasons making it an HBO show that got the world talking. The series (which is streaming with an HBO Max subscription) made a ton of headlines with its third season, which included Sydney Sweeney's OnlyFans plot line. It turns out that Sam Levinson originally wanted to shoot around the nudity... until the actress pushed back.
While fans have been debating Euphoria's series finale, there's been a ton of discourse about Cassie Howard being on OF and the wild nudity that Sweeney shot throughout Season 3. In a conversation with The New York Times, showrunner/writer/director Levinson spoke about his original approach to Cassie's NSFW content, claiming:
Well, it's funny, when I first wrote it, I was like, maybe we shoot all of this and we don't have any nudity. Maybe there's ways to shoot around certain things?
Even before Sydney Sweeney went nude for Season 3, there were plenty of wild OnlyFans scenes that were in the newest season of Euphoria. We saw the actress wearing revealing outfits, dressed up as both a dog and a baby. So Levinson might have been able to work around Cassie's story without having the Madame Web star go nude. Although it sounds like Sweeney insisted on baring it all, as Levinson went on to reveal:
She looked at me and she was like, 'Are you kidding? I'm playing an OnlyFans model. You're telling me you’re going to, like, skirt around it?
Talk about being brave. But since Sweeney had already gone a number of nude scenes for Euphoria's first two seasons, it sounds like she didn't mind doing it again for Season 3. In fact, she thought that it was essential to bringing Cassie's OnlyFans storyline to life.
In addition to the OF scenes, Sweeney also went nude when Cassie had sex with famous actor Dylan Reid (Homer Gere). Then there was the wild fantasy/dream sequence, where Cassie grew into the size of a kaiju and was seen demolishing LA... including putting her bare breasts onto a skyscraper window. Sam Levinson spoke more about how down to clown Sydney Sweeney has been throughout Euphoria, offering:
I think she's a totally fearless actor. She's also just wonderfully professional and shows up just game every day. I adore working with her because there's such a flexibility in terms of the performance. There's a lot of trust that we have.
The word fearless definitely makes sense for those of us who watched all three seasons of the Emmy-winning HBO series. Cassie Howard is a wild character, and many of us would likely balk if asked to do so much vulnerable work, including both nudity and sexual scenes. But Sydney Sweeney accomplished it all, and helped make her Euphoria character a truly iconic part of pop culture.
Euphoria Season 3 is streaming in its entirety on HBO Max as part of the 2026 TV schedule. The show has reached it end, and I'm curious to see how it performs during Awards Season at the Emmys.
