Actress Sydney Sweeney is opening up about regret over some past on-screen nudity that left her feeling “disgusting,” and how some on-screen nudity she’s felt comfortable with has eclipsed her acting talent — a consequence of sexism, the 24-year-old claims.
“I’ve had experiences where I want to go home and scrub myself completely raw because I feel disgusting,” Sweeney told The Independent about past nude work. “I didn’t feel comfortable with my castmate or the crew, and I just didn’t feel like my character would be doing it.”
While shooting HBO’s “Euphoria” though, Sweeney said, she was more comfortable with the nudity, mostly because some nude shots were cut when she pushed back on the necessity of the nudity for her character, Cassie.
“There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless and I would tell [director Sam Levinson], ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here.’ He was like, ‘OK, we don’t need it,’” she explained. “I’ve never felt like Sam has pushed it on me or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale” actress also complained that her work has been overlooked on “Euphoria” primarily because she “got naked” while playing the role, noting of a “stigma against actresses who get naked on screen.”
“When a guy has a sex scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise,” she said. “But the moment a girl does it, it’s completely different.”
The excessive nudity in the second season of “Euphoria” has been noticed by reviewers, too.
“The HBO series made headlines during its premiere as well for pushing boundaries when it came to sex, drugs, and violence, especially since the narrative focused on teenaged characters in high school. But now with the show’s newest season, some viewers are saying the creators took things one step too far,” reported The Daily Wire’s Amanda Harding.
The Guardian described the season as “unrelentingly explicit.”
“‘Euphoria’ is unrelentingly explicit this time around, as if it took one look at its former self and thought: no, not shocking enough, try this,” the outlet said, giving the second season a two-star review. “There is so much nudity, so much sex and so much violence; its characters batter each other senseless, mentally and physically, and the camera lingers on each and every mark.”
“At times, the most shocking thing about ‘Euphoria’ is that there are still some scenes set at school,” the liberal outlet added. “It is easy to forget that the characters are supposed to be 17; their lives are a joyless mess of affairs, hookups, drugs and drink-driving, all wrapped up in a gloomy bow of dread.”
Related: ‘Far Too Much Nudity, Sex, And Violence’ In Euphoria Season 2, Reviewers Say Of Racy Teen Drama