Baring it all. Euphoria has become known for its graphic sex scenes — and the stars haven’t held back about stripping down on camera.
“Every scene is like, ‘He sleeps with this person. He does this with this person naked,'” Jacob Elordi said about playing Nate Jacobs during a March 2022 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “On Euphoria, it comes with the territory of the character. He’s this ultra-masculine, macho jock. Those guys, I think, tend to go around pretty shirtless, so it’s sort of OK.”
The Australia native confirmed that they have an “intimacy coordinator” on set to make sure that the actors are comfortable while filming their steamy scenes. “She’s like a second mother,” Elordi said, joking that since “the crew has been the same from the first season through the second season,” baring all on set is “like getting naked in front of your family. … Which is weird. It’s always weird.”
While Elordi is no longer bothered by how much skin he shows on Euphoria, his costar Sydney Sweeney opened up about the downsides of being naked onscreen. “I don’t think as many people took me seriously in Euphoria because I took my shirt off,” the Washington native told Cosmopolitan in February 2022. “When I saw The Voyeurs for the first time, I wondered if I’d done too much. I researched celebrities who have done nude scenes, trying to make myself feel better.”
She continued: “There are hour-long compilations of world-famous male actors with nude scenes who win Oscars and get praised for that work. But the moment a woman does it, it degrades them. They’re not actresses, they just take off their tops so they can get a role. There’s such a double standard and I really hope that I can have a part in changing that.”
Though he has yet to film a nude scene for the HBO series, Austin Abrams has spoken about the show’s hyper-sexualized nature. In February 2022, he revealed that he was originally supposed to perform Ethan’s homoerotic musical number in Lexi’s (Maude Apatow) play to “Holding Out For a Hero” in his “tighty whities.” When the Dash and Lily star first read the script, he and the other dancers were supposed to be “lathered down in oil and doing all these things” for the scene
“That’s not something previously that I had done in a long time, with dancing and stuff,” Abrams told Entertainment Tonight ahead of the season 2 finale.
Ultimately, the costumes were changed to football uniforms, which made the actor more comfortable.
While Euphoria’s popularity is undeniable, creator Sam Levinson has faced some backlash for what some viewers feel is gratuitous nudity. As several actors revealed that they had to ask for topless scenes to be cut, Eric Dane, who plays Nate’s father, Cal Jacobs, defended Levinson’s outrageous scripts.
“It’s all got a purpose,” the Grey’s Anatomy alum told E! News in January 2022, describing the show as being a “cautionary tale” for fans. “And as long as it’s purposeful in the context of the story, then I think it’s useful.”
Keep scrolling to see what the cast of Euphoria has said about the show’s nude scenes:
