Euphoria’s troubled production: How the messy teen show descended into real life drama

Euphoria burst onto the scene with its purple hued, vibrant, and wild cacophony of moving images back in 2019.

Since then, the show has comfortably dominated every corner of pop culture’s Gen Z ushered revolution.

With a sprawling cast, led by Zendaya, Euphoria saw an unprecedented surge in fan interest and ratings — thanks to a collective of Emmys fuelled glory, instantly recognisable fashion and makeup looks, music, and more — by the time the second season rolled around.

However, since its inception, the series became the breeding ground for some of the most unforgettable controversies and speculations.

It did not help matters when the chaotic writing of season two exposed the holes in the carelessly stitched fabric of the plot.

Furthermore, the delay between the last and upcoming season has only divided expectations and begs the question if the show and production can even pull themselves together well enough to generate any organic hype by the time it is ready to grace our screens again?

From creative issues to personal feuds, here’s a breakdown of Euphoria’s worst crimes:

NSFW viewing

Right from its premiere season, Euphoria broke out the gate with a level of general nudity and NSFW images not expected out of a TV show about teens before.

Unlike its predecessors — “We’re not trying to put out a 'Gossip Girl',” said HBO programming president Casey Bloys — this was a whole new, dark, and no holds barred look at the hidden world of high school students.

A locker room sequence from season one, which featured over 30 quickly edited shots of uncensored male genitalia, made for a particularly shocking viewing experience.

Coupled with other instances of prolonged nudity, any discussion of Euphoria since its debut has carried a pretty big asterisk which counts its X-rated content as a given.

Controversial nudity

A huge talking point about the controversies surrounding Euphoria is its graphic depiction of nudity and sex where teenaged characters are involved.

Since most of the main characters depicted in the series are minors, their multiple sex scenes are considered to be in extremely poor taste.

Additionally, an animated intimate scene between former One Direction members and vocalists, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, which was included in the first season, sparked tons of debate around the idea of using two real people’s likeness in an explicit depiction they did not consent to.

“It was really tough for me. It was a huge back and forth in my head about whether I wanted to be nude or not,” said Alexa Demie, who played Maddy Perez on the show.

Glorification of substance abuse

Due to the show’s protagonist, Rue Bennett’s journey with drug addiction, the viewers are constantly bombarded with unsettling depictions of substance abuse.

To that extent, Euphoria has attracted heavy criticism and remains at the centre of that scrutiny because of the colourful sequences, song and dance, as well as verbal descriptions associated with drug usage onscreen.

Things at that end hit an extreme when the educational programme D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) called out the show’s “misguidedly glorifying and erroneously depicting high-school student drug use.”

Zendaya went on to address the backlash in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, explaining, “Our show is in no way a moral tale to teach people how to live their life or what they should be doing. If anything, the feeling behind Euphoria, or whatever we have always been trying to do with it, is to hopefully help people feel a little bit less alone in their experience and their pain.”

However, the controversy rose again when it was discovered that the series creator, writer, and director — Sam Levinson — had initially cast a real life former drug addict to play Rue, who departed the project due to her own discomfort with the content.

Furthermore, Angus Cloud, who played the drug dealer Fezco “Fez” O’Neill on Euphoria, passed away in July 2023 due to an accidental overdose.

The Sam Levinson sized problem

The driving force behind Euphoria’s creative direction, Sam Levinson himself contributed to the multiple scandals his series has been marred by.

The director and writer’s personal clashes with his cast members resulted in the exit of Barbie Ferreira, who previously played Kat Hernandez on the show.

Another actor, Algee Smith (Chris McKay on the show) made his exit under mysterious circumstances, while fans accused Levinson of “writing out” the only other black lead on the show.

Hunter Schafer, who plays Jules Vaughn, has also hinted at some tension regarding her relationship with Levinson.

Notably, her Cuckoo co-star, Dan Stevens, claimed that her time on Euphoria was “a very, very different experience, and by all accounts, not a terribly pleasant one.”

Furthermore, the women on the show — namely Sydney Sweeney, Chloe Cherry, and Minka Kelly — have been vocal about their experience with the sometimes “unnecessary” demand of nudity from their director.

“There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless, and I would tell Sam, ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here’,” said Sydney Sweeney.

Gruelling working hours — claims which were validated by the main cast and extras on set — also contributed to the distaste of a collaboration with Sam Levinson.

“It felt toxic to me because I don’t think anybody was really happy to be there,” a source present for the shoot claimed.

Allegedly problematic cast members

Though Barbie Ferreira has left the show, the discovery of her past racist posts on Tumblr tipped the pot of the many controversies surrounding the show’s cast members.

Meanwhile, Sydney Sweeney was blasted for having Trump supporters in her family when she posted stories from her mother’s birthday party.

Moreover, her recent scandal with the American Eagle advert and its subsequent defence by multiple right wing channels and personalities — including President Donald Trump himself — further fuelled the racism allegations against her, while also leading to the discovery that the actress herself is a registered Republican since last year.

Cast dynamic

Between seasons one and two, it became clear that due to a lot of known and unknown offscreen developments between multiple actors from the show, the initially positive cast dynamic was just not there anymore.

Barbie Ferreira did not join her castmates for any of the intial promotional events, including the premiere, of Euphoria’s second season.

Zendaya and Jacob Elordi reportedly became a couple sometime after the premiere of season one, and though neither commented on their relationship, they did not share any scenes in the show’s second season.

While there were also reports of tension between Jacob and Hunter Schafer, who is incredibly close to Zendaya, as they were also not seen hanging out or interacting much after their great chemistry during the initial shooting phase (Zendaya, Jacob, and Hunter memorably formed a close trio during season one’s shooting, as demonstrated by their multiple pictures and footage together).

On the other hand, Hunter began a relationship with her season two co-star Dominic Fike (Elliot) during early 2022, which has since ended.

Following claims of cheating and a presumably messy break-up later, considering that all of his scenes were with his ex-girlfriend last season (as their characters also became lovers onscreen), it is unclear whether Dominic’s storyline will still be part of the show.