\u201cB*tch, you\u2019re my soulmate.\u201d The line that Alexa Demie\u2019s Maddy famously delivered to Sydney Sweeney (Cassie) in the first season of Euphoria came full circle during the era-defining show\u2019s final season, where the pair\u2019s competitive, on-again\/off-again friendship remained a major focus.<\/p>\n
And while the fate of Zendaya\u2019s character Rue came to a tragic conclusion with her fentanyl-laced overdose, the 93-minute finale, \u2018In God We Trust\u2019 \u2013 which aired Monday \u2013 left the futures of Sweeney and Demie\u2019s characters hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n
Since the finale, Euphoria creator and writer Sam Levinson has confirmed there will be no more episodes of the hit series, telling The New York Times: \u201cIn terms of the story that we set out to tell, which is a story about addiction and its consequences, this feels like the end to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it didn\u2019t feel like the end for Sweeney and Demie, the undisputed fashion and beauty icons of the series. Following the bloodbath at the Silver Slipper, what became of Maddy? Did she take up with Bishop? Was Maddy and Cassie\u2019s Playboy-style influencer house actually a success? And would the dark truth surrounding Nate\u2019s death ever be revealed?<\/p>\n
For Demie and Sweeney, Euphoria felt like a defining moment long before this final chapter. In 2022, this writer sat down with the actors and their co-star Maude Apatow \u2013 who played Cassie\u2019s straight-laced sister Lexi \u2013 to ask for their reflections on several aspects that made Euphoria such an social media-fuelled hit. <\/p>\n
The trendsetting beauty aesthetic. Those graphic sex scenes. And its portrayal of adolescence\u2019s dark realities, which struck a nerve with viewers and ultimately proved a hauntingly accurate prediction of what was to come.<\/p>\n
Long before the final credits rolled, Sweeney told this writer how she wanted the series to be remembered: \u201cI think 20 years from now \u2026 people are like, wow, that show really holds up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it\u2019s a generational show. When you think back, you\u2019re like, oh, that time is Euphoria.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sweeney \u2013 who is now one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood \u2013 noted how the series became a vehicle for discovering her own confidence and personal style.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love just finding deeper meanings, somehow, in all of the different choices that we make,\u201d she said at the time. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the style and the makeup, it\u2019s such \u2026 an amazing way to be able to express yourself in different ways. I didn\u2019t come from a background where I had the ability [to], or felt confident doing this.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo being able to find my confidence through Cassie \u2013 trying different makeup looks, trying different hair looks \u2013 has been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
This commitment extended to Euphoria\u2019s notoriously explicit sex scenes. The show never shied away from depicting sexuality, which Sweeney revealed was the result of heavy choreography during shooting. <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I think that I make sure that the scenes are actually important for Cassie and Cassie\u2019s storyline,\u201d Sweeney explained.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Sex scenes are] a very, very technical process. It\u2019s kind of laughable because of how technical it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m really lucky that I feel very confident and comfortable with my cast and crew. I\u2019ve never felt uneasy or anything like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is always very cautious of yes, this is a very vulnerable moment. So it\u2019s never been something that I\u2019ve wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gravity of navigating such provocative material was never lost on Demie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think it\u2019s important to be honest in your writing, and I think a lot of the writing \u2026 stems from real issues that we\u2019ve either talked about with Sam or he\u2019s gone through,\u201d Demie said at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you\u2019re gonna create something, create something that\u2019s honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean \u2026 it is fantastical in a way that \u2026 can be a little dramatised, or shot in a certain way.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think if you\u2019re gonna make anything, make it honest and make it feel true to you, because then it\u2019ll feel true to everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the final word is best left to Apatow, who said Euphoria showed the realities of modern American youth in a way that hadn\u2019t been seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201c[There is a feeling] as a teenager that no-one takes you seriously,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all \u2026 dealing with unique issues with technology and just growing up [at] sort of such a dark time in the world. I think it\u2019s really hard on young people.\u201d The final season may have been roundly criticised for being too violent, too off-kilter and too nihilistic, but Apatow\u2019s take on Euphoria\u2019s overarching message sounded like one of hope: \u201cYou\u2019re not alone, we\u2019re sort of all in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final season of Euphoria is streaming now on HBO Max.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cB*tch, you\u2019re my soulmate.\u201d The line that Alexa Demie\u2019s Maddy famously delivered to Sydney Sweeney (Cassie) in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[594,124,21909,21891,1885,21910,21899,18941,21904,21912,21907,21902,21892,21900,21895,6510,21905,21913,368,21908,21897,3371,21911,21894,21903,21893,119,135,21906,21889,8813,21898,247,2224,21901,21896,117,21890,4382],"class_list":["post-23315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-beauty-icons","tag-being-able","tag-california","tag-dark-realities","tag-dark-time","tag-dark-truth","tag-defining-moment","tag-euphoria-finale","tag-explicit-sex-scenes","tag-felt-confident-doing","tag-fentanyl-overdose","tag-final-chapter","tag-final-credits","tag-final-season","tag-final-word","tag-generational-show","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-graphic-sex-scenes","tag-hair-looks","tag-hollywood","tag-makeup-looks","tag-maude-apatow","tag-modern-american-youth","tag-new-york-times-company","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-on-again-off-again-friendship","tag-real-issues","tag-sam-levinson","tag-sex-scenes","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-sweeney","tag-tragic-conclusion","tag-trendsetting-beauty-aesthetic","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-writer-sat","tag-young-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}