{"id":728207,"date":"2026-06-10T21:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728207\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T21:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:15:10","slug":"sydney-sweeney-on-euphoria-season-3-and-why-cassies-critics-are-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728207\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Sweeney on Euphoria Season 3 and Why Cassie’s Critics Are Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCassie Howard\u2019s story has concluded. But Sydney Sweeney<\/a> isn\u2019t quite ready to let her go.<\/p>\n

\n\tSweeney, already an Emmy nominee for the second season of \u201cEuphoria<\/a>\u201d in 2022, dove even deeper into the character for the recent third and final season, and she tells Variety that she still thinks about what else Cassie might get up to. Over the course of eight episodes, Cassie, whom we\u2019d last seen as a painfully insecure high-schooler, experienced endless milestones of grown-up life \u2014 getting married to boyfriend Nate (Jacob Elordi), facing down her household\u2019s bankruptcy and working as an OnlyFans model to pay the bills (and Nate\u2019s debts). Throughout, the show\u2019s trademark surreality and sense of play allowed Sweeney to act out massive emotional swings and to edge into the absurd, as in a sequence where Cassie strides through Los Angeles, towering over buildings and dominating the men below.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCassie has been a calling-card role for Sweeney, who had never played a part this meaty when the show launched in 2019. (Last year, Variety declared her turn on \u201cEuphoria\u201d to be one of the greatest TV performances of the century so far<\/a>.) Since then, Sweeney has scaled up her ambition in acting and producing; never busier, Sweeney could well receive another Emmy nomination this summer. Given the role\u2019s frank sexuality, it\u2019s also sparked yet more of the endless conversation and controversy that seems to trail her. In a conversation while on a break from the Australia set of anime adaptation \u201cGundam,\u201d Sweeney says that she believes, or hopes, that when separated from the noise of the present moment, \u201cEuphoria\u201d will age well, and that some of her critics might think, as she puts it: \u201cMaybe we all had this very wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tWhat has the process of letting Cassie go felt like, now that we know \u201cEuphoria\u201d has ended?\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEvery season, we never knew if we were going to be doing a follow-up season, so by the end of Season 1 or Season 2, I was having this bittersweet moment of continually saying goodbye to Cassie every single time. And because there are such big time jumps between each season, yes, I\u2019m coming back to the same character, but I\u2019m coming back to a different place in her life. You\u2019re getting the groundwork of who this character was that you kept jumping in and out of. It\u2019s a really cool challenge and piece of homework to try to fill in all the gaps. But this is my third time saying goodbye to her \u2014 and I feel like the third time\u2019s a charm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tYes, Cassie changed \u2014 but you had a ton of different experiences in your life and career between Seasons 2 and 3, from producing \u201cAnyone But You\u201d to leading \u201cThe Housemaid.\u201d How did your partnership with Sam Levinson feel different?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSam\u2019s always been very collaborative \u2014 he\u2019s always talked to us about how we feel about different scenes or what\u2019s happening with our storyline. But there\u2019s multiple elements to it: Going back to \u201cEuphoria\u201d has felt like going home. I\u2019ve grown up on the show; it was the first big, huge project that I was part of. Yes, I had recurring roles on \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d and \u201cSharp Objects,\u201d but this is the first time I felt like, Oh, wow, this is what I\u2019ve always wanted since I was a little girl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo going back after all these years \u2014 with a lot of the same crew, most of the same cast, Sam \u2014 you\u2019ve got that home element, that comfort and trust. And then because I\u2019ve had so much growth over the last few years between Season 2 and 3, gaining more confidence in my own self and my own work allowed me to sit in the tent and be more part of the process.<\/p>\n

\t\tOne scene that got a great deal of attention was the homage to \u201cAttack of the 50 Foot Woman,\u201d<\/a> where Cassie stomps through a city and collides her breasts into a building. I think some people saw that as a set piece that was inflicted on you by Sam, so I\u2019m curious what you thought when you were presented with it.\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI thought that it was wild and fun. There\u2019s this aspect of Cassie that feels otherworldly, where she makes grand gestures \u2014 you watch a trainwreck, but it\u2019s this beautifully hilarious, emotional trainwreck, and everybody\u2019s along for the ride. The 50-foot woman is such a metaphor for where Cassie is in her life, and what she feels, and what she\u2019s going through. She\u2019s going to destroy everything around her to become famous, even if it breaks her completely. She truly wants love, and she wants people to admire her. Does she get it in the wrong ways? Yes. But it was a fun and creative way to show where Cassie was in her life.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEddy Chen<\/p>\n

\t\tSpeaking of finding love in the wrong ways, I wanted to talk about Cassie\u2019s marriage to Nate. It feels at first as if she got everything she wanted \u2014 and yet we eventually come to wonder if Cassie really loves Nate, or just the image of their lives together.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI think that, unfortunately, she doesn\u2019t know what love is. I think that she had a bad example with her dad. She didn\u2019t grow up with an idea of what a healthy relationship looks like or what a healthy version of love is. Then, throughout high school, she gets treated terribly by boys \u2014 she\u2019s just a piece of meat and a token. She learns that all they want from her is her body, so that sets up an element of her not respecting herself and not looking for the right things in guys, because they\u2019re not looking for the right things in her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDo I think she loved Nate in her own way? Yes. Do I think that it was for the right reasons? Yes and no. She was so deep into it, she didn\u2019t know how to get out. She says it to Maddy \u2014 when they meet by the pool, she had to justify everything to herself, and I don\u2019t think she wanted to even think about the idea that maybe they aren\u2019t actually in love. So there\u2019s a lot of layers to that.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tThe wedding \u2014 and especially Cassie and Nate\u2019s dance, as Cassie melts down on the day she\u2019s spent her life dreaming of, having learned about the deep financial hole Nate is in \u2014 must have felt especially layered.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have this juxtaposition where she\u2019s supposed to be happy, and the idea of this relationship she was going to have is completely false. And because she\u2019s always cared about what people have thought about her, the idea of it falling apart around her was even more catastropic. So it was definitely one of those moments where Cassie does what she does best and her emotions get the better of her and she loses it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI do want to say, though, that I do think Cassie and Nate were really good friends. Were they the best husband and wife? Probably not. But at the end of the day, they really did care for each other.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a fan of the show, I was gratified to see that Cassie and Maddy (Alexa Demie) made a conditional sort of peace over the course of the season. Were you rooting for that?<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course! Because Cassie needs her Maddy and Maddy needs her Cassie. That is the most real version of love that Cassie has in her life.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey\u2019re kind of matter and antimatter \u2014 they both need the energy they get from butting up against each other.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor sure. Every blonde needs their brunette.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEddy Chen<\/p>\n

\t\tThis plot detail was siloed off from your storyline, but I\u2019m curious how you felt when you learned that Zendaya\u2019s character, Rue, was going to die in the finale.\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWe didn\u2019t get all the scripts. We were only given our specific scenes. We all knew that Rue was going to get killed off \u2014 we knew that for a long, long time \u2014 but no idea how, when it was going to happen. So when I was watching it with everybody else, it was actually the first time that I even uncovered what was going to happen. It\u2019s crazy, but it was also really neat being able to watch as a viewer and not know what was going to happen. I was crying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tHow has \u201cEuphoria\u201d changed your standards about what other parts you take on? Do you get offered parts that are like Cassie, but less interesting?\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI fought so hard against playing roles like Cassie \u2014 because, as everyone knows, everyone online is like, Oh, she is Cassie, she\u2019s typecast, that\u2019s all she does. If anyone actually looks at what I\u2019ve done between seasons of \u201cEuphoria,\u201d I\u2019ve done \u201cReality,\u201d \u201cChristy,\u201d \u201cThe Housemaid,\u201d \u201cEden,\u201d \u201cAnyone But You,\u201d such drastically different genres and characters that have no similarity to Cassie. With Season 3, as I was filming it, I remember turning to Kaylee [McGregor], my producing partner, and I was like, We\u2019ve got to find more crazy characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not fun doing my job unless I\u2019m challenged. It\u2019s always a little exciting when you\u2019re scared to go into a scene. I want to find more characters like that. Do I want to find Cassie specifically? No, but I want to find a character that pushes me into crazy levels, and to discover different elements of my craft.<\/p>\n

\t\tIt sounds like with your new production company, you could be well-situated to find characters like that.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tYou might just have to wait and see.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tDo you feel satisfied with where Cassie ended up?\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever be satisfied with where Cassie ended up, just because I know there is more to tell of Cassie\u2019s story. But I feel that way about so many of my projects. \u201cEverything Sucks!\u201d was a one-season show that I did when I was 18 years old, and sometimes I wake up and go, I wonder if we could all come back. I don\u2019t think that feeling will ever go away. I\u2019ll always be wondering what Cassie is up to in \u201cEuphoria\u201d-verse.<\/p>\n

\t\tTo get specific about the ending: Cassie puts on a brave face for her sister Lexi (Maude Apatow), but after Lexi leaves, Cassie looks up at a picture of herself and Nate together, and sheds a tear. What did you make of that?\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s trapped in her own dollhouse. She got everything she seemingly wanted, but she\u2019s back at the same place she started. And Lexi left her there.<\/p>\n

\t\tAs a producer, what did you learn from the way Sam runs \u201cEuphoria\u201d?\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom a story element, I always want to be telling the truth, but pushing the boundaries. Sam always found this really interesting line of being very truthful of what is going on behind closed doors in a generation, but then also pushing the boundaries on how people are used to perceiving or digesting certain topics. I hope that I can find characters that make people uncomfortable or question their stance, because that\u2019s what art\u2019s supposed to do.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tWas it uncomfortable, though, as an actor, to be the object of scrutiny? You were pushing boundaries, but from Cassie\u2019s storyline to your nude scenes, you received real criticism from the show\u2019s skeptics.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know if I vocabularize this well, but I\u2019ve always found it really interesting how people scrutinize how Cassie was treated on the show, and then they do it to me in real life. There\u2019s no awareness that [Cassie\u2019s peers] sexualize Cassie on the show, but we\u2019re going to do this in real life too. To be honest, sometimes it\u2019s hard, but I hope maybe years from now, when people are separated from the craziness and the clickbait of social media, someone who sits back and watch it all, doing a deep dive, goes, \u201cHuh, maybe we all had this very wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cassie Howard\u2019s story has concluded. But Sydney Sweeney isn\u2019t quite ready to let her go. Sweeney, already an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,134393,30000,427],"class_list":["post-728207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-euphoria","tag-sydney-sweeney","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}