Topics: Euphoria, Film and TV, Sex and Relationships, Sydney Sweeney
Euphoria's Alexa Demie has spoken out about feeling 'scared' to lose her role for saying no to filming nude scenes, prior to the season three finalé.
The 35-year-old star has played the fearless Maddy Perez for seven years, after the show first aired on HBO in 2019.
During the third and final season, according to creator Sam Levinson, the show has repeatedly come under fire for its graphic and sexual content.
Now, Demie has spoken out about her experiences shooting several scenes that required her to be naked, among many other stars in the show.
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Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, she admitted: "I thought that if I said no to doing them [sex scenes], then I wouldn’t have the part.
"Not because anyone ever said that to me, but because I was so young and I didn’t know."
The star recalled how she felt uncomfortable during the filming of the first season, when she shot multiple X-rated scenes with Jacob Elordi, who plays the cunning Nate Jacobs.
"I’m not saying I don’t love sex," she claimed, "I think it can be portrayed beautifully, and I know the show is portraying the life of teenage girls."
Demie added: "But once I did it, I realised, 'OK, I don’t love how this feels'.
"So I said something, and everyone was empathetic, and I never did that again."
It comes after Sydney Sweeney, who also shot to fame after starring in Euphoria, has repeatedly received backlash for some of the more shocking scenes she took part in.
Season three of the show saw Cassie, played by Sweeney, launch her OnlyFans account, with some viewers suggesting that scenes often felt 'degrading' and 'went too far'.
But creator Levinson has defended the storyline.
Speaking at a Q&A for The Hollywood Reporter’s Directors In Focus event, he said: "What’s interesting is if you push it a little bit, she becomes brilliant.
"You just do a few more takes, and she can reach these levels that are very honest emotionally, but also deeply funny."
He added: "She’s able to anchor the scene with this kind of madness and chaos going on around her."
Eagle-eyed fans will have noticed the latest episode of Euphoria was being advertised as a ‘season finale’, not a ‘series finale’ - does this mean Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and series creator Sam Levinson might come back for more?
Prior to the season three premiere, Levinson told Variety there were ‘no plans’ for another season, but added the caveat that he thought the previous two seasons of Euphoria would be the final ones too.
But following the broadcast of the finale, Levinson confirmed to The New York Times that there definitely won't be a season four - which is unsurprising, given the way the latest episode ends.
He told the outlet's Podcast podcast: "In terms of the story we set out to tell, which is a story about addiction and its consequences, this feels like the end to me.
"It was such a fulfilling journey in terms of this cast, the crew, what we were able to accomplish.
"There are thousands of things that have to go right in order to make something like this, and I'm just immensely proud of the work we did, the story we told, and it's a tragic one in the end, but also it's the truth.
"If you are experimenting or taking drugs today, it's very possible it'll kill you."
When asked by the hosts if 'that's it, Euphoria ends here, with Rue', Levinson responded: "Yeah."
