The actress opened up this week about her deep investment in Cassie Howard’s polarizing OnlyFans storyline in the third and final season of HBO’s Euphoria, telling Vanity Fair she fully backed creator Sam Levinson’s decision to take the character in that direction, even when it tested her personal limits. “I told him, ‘Look, I’m playing a character.’ Do I agree with all of Cassie’s decisions? Would I personally make these choices? No, of course not,” Sweeney said. “But I’m an actor and that’s my job and this is Cassie’s life — and to do her justice and play her how she’s to be played is to bring Sam’s vision to life.”
Sweeney said the OnlyFans arc illuminated something fundamental about Cassie that has run through all three seasons: a desperate need for external validation. “From the very beginning, you can see that Cassie has this need to be loved. She has a need to be validated by other people,” she said. “She doesn’t know how to love herself unless someone else loves her. I think she was more excited by the idea of all these people loving her and knowing who she is and feeling like her world isn’t small.”
The storyline landed with considerable controversy. Critics pointed to an eight-minute sequence in Episode 5 — in which Cassie films fetish content, including a segment where she transforms into a giant destroying Hollywood — as evidence that the show had lost its tonal footing, with one reviewer noting that only one main female character in the season, Maude Apatow’s Lexi, isn’t involved in some form of sex work. The series finale, which aired May 31 to 8.5 million viewers, ended with Cassie doubling down on her OnlyFans venture while Rue dies after being given fentanyl. HBO has confirmed the show ends with Season 3.
Sweeney also revealed a deleted scene she hopes surfaces as bonus content. After taking pole dancing lessons in preparation for a Silver Slipper strip club sequence, she filmed Cassie getting drunk and joining the dancers on stage — a scene Levinson later cut for pacing reasons, but suggested might be released as behind-the-scenes footage. “I was like, please do, because I put a lot of hard work into that,” Sweeney said.
