Poor Cassie really can’t catch a break. The Euphoria character, one of Sydney Sweeney's many memorable roles, has spent most of Season 2 diving in and out of wild situations, including plenty of nude scenes, a memorable bathtub moment, and a particularly horrendous episode involving throwing up in a hot tub. It may not look like it, but those viral moments actually took some major movie magic to film.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal, Sydney Sweeney shared a fascinating fact behind Cassie’s bathtub scene in the Season 2 premiere episode, ‘Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door.’ Apparently, some of the shots included a bisected tub. She said:
It was a good half a day or two, not too long. Get in, get out. It wasn’t that bad. It was fun because they had to cut the bathtub in half to have the camera in.
While there are obviously some shots that showed the entire tub, there were a few close-ups that definitely would have been difficult for the crew to film while having to fit an entire camera behind a shower curtain. As to how the production crew of Euphoria managed to saw a porcelain bathtub in half? That’s anyone’s guess. although, given the show’s sky-high budget, it probably wasn’t too much of a hassle to find someone to handle it properly. Someone’s gotta pay for all of Jules’ iconic eye glitter.
The hugely meme-able bathtub scene wasn’t Cassie’s only viral moment in Season 2. In a feature with The Independent, Sydney Sweeney also revealed that a bit of movie magic was required to create Cassie’s now-infamous hot tub sequence. If you saw it, it’s doubtful that a refresher is necessary as it's most likely burned into your retinas. Just in case, you can watch the clip below. (Content warning: gross, albeit fake, vomit and mature language!)
In the scene, Maddy reveals that Nate had talked to her about marriage and even future Perez-Jacobs babies. This comment was the last straw for Cassie, who was already wasted and distraught over the fact that Nate seemed to be ignoring her, and she ended up puking all over her current lover, Maddy's ex-boyfriend, in the hot tub. Naturally, Maddy, Nate, and Co. leap out of the hot tub while Cassie begins to sob. It's pretty intense, and the actual vomiting lasts for almost a minute. Sydney Sweeney explained the shooting process:
They had to design this thing for my mouth that looked like a horse bit. It was attached to tubing that was then taped down my hair and back, and connected to a tank that they hid off camera. During the scene, the tank would get turned on and fill my mouth with the throw-up. I don’t know what it was. It did not taste or feel good. I had to look like nothing was happening and hold it in until it was time to vomit. It was so bad.
Talk about commitment to a craft. (And hopefully to craft services, assuming she got that taste out of her mouth soon after filming.) Hopefully, Sydney Sweeney feels that her discomfort was worth it, because her scenes on Euphoria always feel authentic and real - no matter how much secondhand embarrassment viewers may be feeling for Cassie. You’d never know that she was crouching inside half of a bathtub.
Catch up with Sydney Sweeney as Cassie on Season 2 of Euphoria. New episodes air on Sundays on HBO, and previous installments are available to view with your HBO Max subscription. You can also see Sydney Sweeney on Season 1 of HBO’s The White Lotus, or check out more upcoming TV releases set to hit streaming in 2022.
