Sydney SweeneyPhoto: Brendon Thorne (Getty Images)
For anyone who hasn't hidden in the bathtub at a party after sleeping with their best friend's boyfriend or been called a slut for a play written by her sister and performed in front of the entire high school, the experience is… Watching HBO's Euphoria, not exactly a relaxing way to spend a Sunday evening. In fact, this author would characterize it as ranging from profoundly frightening to actively frightening. Behind the scenes, however, the actual act of filming has a very different effect, at least for Sydney Sweeney, the bathtub hider and hot tub vomiter.
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“Cassie is definitely the closest thing to me that I've ever played, especially in the first season, and she means a lot to me,” Sweeney said of her character in a recent interview with Glamor UK. “It's almost like therapy: I can let out so much… that when I go home I feel free.”
As stressful as watching the show can be, Sweeney is really on to something here. If everyone could find a way to get paid to recite Cassie's breathtaking monologue, “You can all judge me if you want, but I've never, never been happier,” or to stick their entire torso out of a car, that A million miles above our speed limit by Jacob Elordi (in a controlled environment, of course) the world would be a much healthier place.
But despite these moments of catharsis, Sweeney knows there will be a tragic undertone to filming the third season of “Euphoria,” which is scheduled to begin next year. Sweeney's co-star Angus Cloud died this summer at the age of 25. His friends and family were grieving and still trying to process the loss. “[My costars and I] We were constantly on the phone and crying because it was just a shock,” Sweeney said when he first heard the news. “I don't think it will really feel real or hit me until we're filming and I don't see Angus on set.”
“(At least) when we're filming, all of our eyes are on each other and we're there for each other, just in a different way than we could if we're all in very different places in the world,” she continued . “It’s really interesting when someone dies in our industry because they’re still alive in so many forms.”