Sam Levinson's HBO show Euphoria explores teen lives, addiction, mental illness, sexuality,
and social media, and it was the unexpected hit of summer 2019.
But what's happening behind the scenes is just as fascinating as what's taking place
on screen.
Here is the untold truth of Euphoria.
When Euphoria first hit screens, alarm bells sounded for many adults.
The graphic on-camera sex as well as the copious drug abuse displayed right from the get-go
was concerning to older folks who felt it was exploitative.
IndieWire went so far as to call Euphoria a "horror show," a moniker that fits seeing
as how much imminent danger the kids on the show are constantly in, whether at their own
hands or others.
Whether it's Rue's struggle with substance abuse, Jules' sexual risk-taking with much
older men, or Maddy and Nate's toxic and physically abusive relationship, the kids don't seem
alright at all.
Vice went ahead and asked a bunch of folks around the same age as the characters in Euphoria
what they thought, and they overwhelmingly agreed that the show is absolutely realistic.
Maybe it's sometimes a bit over the top, but the series is close enough to real life to
make it painful and powerful to watch.
Many of the interviewees also noted that if they hadn't had those specific experiences
themselves, from leaked nudes to drug abuse, they know people who did, making Euphoria
a fictionalized but realistic account of youth culture.
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson spent much of his youth struggling with drug addiction and
other risky behavior that had him in and out of rehab and halfway homes.
He took these experiences, folding them with compassion and love into Rue's troubled character.
At the Euphoria premiere in June 2019, Levinson told the audience,
"Sometime around the age of 16, I resigned myself to the idea that eventually drugs would
kill me and there was no reason to fight it.
I would let it take me over, and I had made peace with that."
For Levinson, his personal struggle with addiction is in the past, and he was able to channel
his experiences into Euphoria to phenomenal effect.
"I was thinking about, you know, her drug use, and how do we depict the highs of it."
Euphoria wasn't just about showing the escapist side of addiction or glamorizing drug use.
Levinson also wanted to explore the trauma and shame that comes with being an addict.
His firsthand experiences are partly what makes the series feel so authentic.
Scrolling through the Euphoria tag on Instagram reveals fans trying to recreate some of the
show's looks.
Since the characters have such singular presentations, there is a goldmine of inspiration in virtually
every frame of the show.
Creator Sam Levinson and costume designer Heidi Bivins worked closely with each actor,
having many create detailed mood boards for the characters.
Speaking to Teen Vogue, Bivins revealed that Hunter Schafer's Jules starts out the series
as basically a human anime character, wearing only cute pastel skirts and lots of glitter.
As her sexuality and personality evolve, Jules expands her wardrobe to include trousers as
she explores herself through new outfits.
Maddy is the opposite, with a look that's been the same since she was a pageant kid:
lots of stick-on jewels à la Nomi Malone in Showgirls.
As the series nods to, the character was also influenced by Sharon Stone's character in
Casino.
"Seriously, Sharon Stone in Casino was like Maddy's spirit animal."
Regarding Rue, by the Season 1 finale, we find out she has been wearing her late father's
red hoodie the whole season.
Fashion can display personality, but it can also show grief.
Zendaya's first claim to fame was in Disney Channel's Shake It Up, in which she played
the character Rocky Blue.
Her acting career merged with singing when she released singles "Swag it Out" and "Watch
Me" in 2011, making her an up-and-coming musical star as well as actor.
Both of these talents met in The Greatest Showman, where she was also able to put her
dance talents on display.
But Zendaya embodied the role of Rue with such nuance and empathy that her fans seemed
to have forgotten she's known for her singing as well.
Social media freaked out when she began singing a remixed version of Labyrinth's "All For
Love" at the end of Euphoria's Season 1 finale, a surprising development that still somehow
made perfect sense.
Yet another controversy happened after the episode featuring the animation of some One
Direction erotic fan fiction aired.
In her fictionalized story about the band members, Kat details a romantic and sexual
relationship between One Direction's Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles, a fake romance
called "Larry Stylinson" by fans who want the singers to be together in real life.
Like most of the sex on Euphoria, the fictionalized romance is graphic and detailed.
However, Louis Tomlinson wasn't too thrilled by the fanfiction HBO aired.
He took to Twitter to express his upset and make sure everyone knew that he hadn't approved
of the story, and that he wasn't even informed that the show was including it.
Euphoria has been lauded for its dark and sparkly gorgeous production design that features
lots of glitter and wild light shows.
One of creator Sam Levinson's visual inspirations was the photography of Ohio native Todd Hido,
who creates dreamy portraits of suburban life in a state of early decay.
Levinson told Entertainment Weekly that Hido's imagery often involves suburbia at nighttime,
with striking hues and lighting that can make an otherwise mundane place feel like something
out of sci-fi.
He continued,
"It was sort of a way to express the kind of alien nature of the world when you're young."
Levinson also noted Paul Thomas Anderson's Los Angeles ensemble drama Magnolia as another
inspiration for Euphoria's style.
This is evident in the long close-ups on actors' faces, making their performances almost part
of a stage play, as well as the long, dramatic tracking shots that tell multiple stories
in just one take.
There is so much talent in Euphoria that it's really difficult to pick just one person who
stands out.
But if we had to, that person would probably be breakout star Hunter Schafer for her stunning
performance as Jules, her first-ever acting role, believe it or not.
She is raw and vulnerable, yet strong and fierce, playing a complicated role that seems
like stuff only a veteran actor could pull off.
Up until Euphoria, Schafer was a model studying fashion design, and she made a name for herself
as an LGBTQ activist.
She was named as a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the discriminatory transgender
bathroom bill proposed by North Carolina's legislation.
But then the call for Euphoria came.
Not only does Schafer play one of the most three-dimensional transgender characters ever
put on TV, but she even had the opportunity to help craft her character, Jules.
Besides making mood boards for her character's fashion and makeup choices, Schafer said in
an interview with "them."
that she and creator Sam Levinson, shared and combined their life stories like puzzle
pieces in order to fill out the backstory of Jules' life.
"I don't think I have an attention span for real life anymore."
"Shut up, you smartass."
Playing Fezco, a drug dealer with a kind heart, Angus Cloud is another one of the series'
breakout stars.
Yes, his character peddles pills to high schoolers and has some dangerous colleagues, but Fez
also loves Rue and takes care of his bedridden grandmother.
Like Hunter Schafer, Cloud didn't have acting experience before landing Euphoria, which
makes his nuanced and emotional performance even more impressive.
Cloud was invited to audition for Euphoria after a casting agent saw him walking down
the street in Manhattan.
At first, Cloud thought the opportunity was a scam based on how aggressive the agent was,
but he took a risk and gave her his number.
The next thing he knew, he was on his way to shoot the Euphoria pilot in Los Angeles.
Even though he'd been cast in a major role of a soon-to-be-hit show, Cloud was forced
to rent rooms in AirBnBs because he didn't have good enough credit to rent an apartment.
Fortunately, with the success of Euphoria, Cloud was able to snag an apartment and has
taken up studying acting.
When actors play villains, they often end up seeing the story through their characters'
eyes, which can get complicated when the character is a monster.
Villains, after all, are the heroes of their own stories and have their own goals and challenges,
but, unlike other TV villains, Euphoria character Nate Jacobs pretty much fits the description
of a psychopath.
He's manipulative, abusive, and physically violent, and seems to express no remorse about
blackmailing, lying, and displaying narcissistic rage.
He comes off in every way like an American Psycho for the modern USA.
But Jacob Elordi, who plays Nate, doesn't think that his character is an actual psychopath.
"He's kinda just like this really frightened little boy in an enormous aggressive body."
Elordi told The Wrap,
"I just played off the circumstances of him being a victim of abuse, in a way.
His dad physically hurts him, he mentally hurts him, he's messed up his whole interpretation
of what it is to be functioning human being.
So I didn't really come at it with any medical assessment of him, just a human being dealing
with what it would be like [under] those circumstances."
Euphoria is filled to the brim with powerful and disturbing imagery.
Arguably one of the most painful moments comes when Nate and his father get into a loud and
violent physical altercation.
Once Cal Jacobs physically restrains his son, Nate begins bashing his own head against the
floor in a screaming bout of self-harm.
Actors Eric Dane and Jacob Elordi went full-on method for this scene, deciding to actually
fight each other rather than pretend.
Talking to IndieWire, Elordi said,
"I was bleeding.
I got a concussion.
I ended up throwing up after work.
It was gnarly.
It was really, really gnarly."
While we don't have a psychiatrist's assessment as to whether Nate Jacobs is a certified psychopath,
Entertainment Weekly's Clarkisha Kent argues that he is the most horrifying and realistic
villain on television.
Kent notes that Nate is singularly terrifying to people of color and other marginalized
identities.
Kent writes,
"He represents an honest and unflinching look at the intersections between rich white male
privilege, white male rage, and toxic masculinity."
"You're abusive.
Psychopathic.
Most of the time I really hate the way you make me feel."
"I know."
Nate's father, Cal, is a statutory rapist, and he also appears to own much of the land
in Euphoria's suburban town.
Because of Cal's economic and social power, and Nate's superstar athlete clout, Nate is
able to get away with things nobody else can, such as choking his girlfriend in public and
then framing an innocent man for it.
It's also possible that Nate might not be as straight as he presents, and psychologists
have shown that his kind of sexual repression can often lead to violence.
In Nate's meltdown scene during the season 1 finale, we see the breadth of his rage,
and it's scary to think what will happen if he doesn't get help.
Because Euphoria is narrated by Rue, who knows a lot more about people's inner lives and
fears than she should, many viewers theorized that Rue is narrating from beyond the grave.
Adding steam to this is the fact that Rue overdosed at the beginning of the series,
and many of her classmates actually did think she had died.
But in the wake of the Season 1 finale, Euphoria's stars spoke out, saying this theory simply
doesn't track.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Jules actress Hunter Schafer said,
"I guess you could apply that perspective if you wanted to.
But I don't really see anything that confirms that."
Jacob Elordi told IndieWire,
"My feeling is that that's pretty morbid.
That's a different show isn't it?"
Given how Euphoria is meant to be about the reality of social issues like addiction and
mental illness, having Rue be dead would only serve to take away its realism and power.
Furthermore, creator Sam Levinson has put this theory to bed once and for all, telling
The Hollywood Reporter,
"Yes, Rue is not dead.
That I can say for certain."
After a buzzworthy first season, it's no surprise that HBO would decide to renew Euphoria for
another round.
Plus, the freshman season ended on such a wild series of cliffhangers that it would
be cruel to leave viewers wondering about the fates of many now-beloved characters.
Is Rue going to be okay after her relapse?
What will Maddy do with the DVD of Cal and Jules?
How will Jules change after spending more time in the city?
While specific plot details have yet to emerge, we do know that Rue is, in fact, still alive
and will still be the main character of season 2.
Levinson also shared that Fezco's and Lexi's pasts will be revealed in future episodes.
While Levinson may not have a full arc for the show in mind, or any estimate of how many
seasons fans can expect, he's planning to take each development as it comes and see
where the series' fascinating characters will take him next.
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