The HBO show’s second season has played out as a series of humiliations for Cassie, a fragile high schooler who seeks out love and validation in mostly unhealthy ways. Cassie hooks up
with her best friend’s ex-boyfriend, then hides, terrified, in a bathtub to avoid getting caught; wakes up at 4 a.m. to prepare to see said hookup at school before being outright ignored by him; drunkenly dances and sings, crying, alone in a room and wearing only a swimsuit during a birthday party, then vomits into a hot tub. Numerous additional tear-filled breakdowns occur along the way. Euphoria Sydney Sweeney Cassie
Sweeney was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, and after presenting a PowerPoint to her family that included a five-year plan on how she would become an actor, moved with them to Los Angeles to pursue the goal. She rose to fame starring on Euphoria in 2019 as well as last year’s vacation satire The White Lotus. Right now, she’s working on The Players Table, an adaptation of the 2020 novel They Wish They Were Us, by Jessica Goodman, that she optioned through her production company, Fifty-Fifty Films. She co-stars with the singer Halsey.
Here, Sweeney speaks to WSJ. about turning the Euphoria crew onto ice rollers and what happened after she recently spoke out about the double standards for male and female actresses who do nude scenes. Euphoria Sydney Sweeney Cassie
Here are some things Sydney Sweeney revealed to WSJ. Magazine…
Sweeney on not staying in character with Cassie between scenes:
“I’m able to just jump in and out…. [I] basically break away all walls of protection,” she says of navigating the challenge of on-screen breakdowns. “It’s a very healthy method for me, because if I had to stay in that mindset before [scenes], I don’t think I’d be able to go home as Syd in the healthy way.”
Sweeney on her recent comment that there are characters she plays that she loves and those she’s afraid of. Which is Cassie?:
I think Cassie is a bit of a mix of both. I love her because I feel her pain, I feel her loss, and I feel for her growth. But I’m scared of the choices she makes because sometimes she doesn’t think everything through. Euphoria Sydney Sweeney Cassie
Sweeney on what motivates Cassie:
She has always wanted to be loved, whether it’s from her mom, her sister, her dad, boys, herself, and the part that complicates it is she doesn’t have that love for herself, and she doesn’t know how to achieve it. She thinks it’s through other people, but it’s through herself, and she doesn’t like herself enough to be able to not need other people in her life.
Sweeney on Cassie’s iconic, meme-able moments this season…
On the bathtub scene:
It was a good half a day or two, not too long. Get in, get out. It wasn’t that bad. It was fun because they had to cut the bathtub in half to have the camera in.
On whether she expected the “I have never, ever been happier!” scene to go viral:
I did not. That was actually the first scene that we filmed. I was like, “Oh, my gosh, this is such a big scene to start off with. I guess we start out with a banger with Cassie.” As the season went on, I kind of forgot about it, and [now] it’s everywhere.
Sweeney on making “character bibles” for each character that she plays, and what Cassie’s looks like:
Her book is very scrapbooky, a lot of very melodramatic quotes. She likes to pretend that her life could be like a very sad music video. So her book feels very teen angst, trying to glamorize something that’s broken. Euphoria Sydney Sweeney Cassie
Sweeney on using her own beauty products into the scenes where she spends three hours every morning getting ready:
I had someone go and [pick up] the bin of products I have underneath my sink. I’m very similar to Cassie in that way, where I try as many devices and serums and I have to stay young forever. That big blue ice roller I got off of Amazon, and I use that every single day before I go to bed. Like that was my religion. And when I used that on set, everyone was like, “Wow. What is that?” And the following week, all the crew, everyone was [using] their blue ice rollers.
Sweeney on whether Cassie is capable of finding her strength:
I do think she is. Whether she does it in a morally correct way, that will be questionable.
Sweeney on what she admires about Cassie:
I admire how many times she tries.
Sweeney on whether any actresses reached out to her since she talked about the double standards of doing nude scenes for men and women, how men win Oscars for them while for women it often feels degrading:
No. Euphoria Sydney Sweeney Cassie
Sweeney on how it felt to talk about that in such a real way:
I think it’s a conversation that needs to be had, and I have no problem doing the scenes, especially when meant for the character and if it’s important to the character’s story. It’s such an interesting question—that no one has actually reached out, and now I’m like, what?
Sweeney on whether she wants anything for Cassie in the new season now that the show’s been renewed:
I don’t think like that, because of course I want Cassie to make the right decisions and come out, hopefully, on the better side; but also as an actor, I really love the stuff that’s juicy.
Read the full article here.
Featured photo: sydney_sweeney | Instagram
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