Sydney Sweeney reveals two family members were unprepared to see her in Euphoria

Sydney Sweeney has made quite an impression on viewers in her role as Cassie in the hit HBO drama Euphoria, but some members of her family were uncomfortable watching her on screen when the show first began. 

The actress, who is starring in the new drama Reality, about former NSA contractor Reality Winner, said her dad and grandfather were not prepared to see her in her role as a teen struggling with issues such as sex, drugs and violence in a preview clip from Sunday Today with Willie Geist. 

‘My mom visited me on set at the time, so she like knew the story and I talked to her a lot about it – my dad didn’t,’ the 25-year-old actress. ‘I didn’t prepare my dad at all.’

The Emmy nominated actress explained that ‘When I talk to my dad, it’s usually not about work, we talk, like, father-daughter conversations.’

None of those conversations apparently included the facts of life about the characters on the often risqué drama.

‘So he watched it, without telling me, with his parents.’ 

After the first episode began, the men were quite uncomfortable seeing the young actress in precarious scenarios. 

‘My dad and my grandpa turned it off and walked out,’ she said.

But one family member watched until the bitter end. 

‘My grandma… she’s a big supporter of mine.’

‘Actually,’ the White Lotus actress continued, ‘I bring her, usually, all over the world to my different sets and I make her an extra.’

Explaining why she was drawn to the role, she said, ‘I think I tend to drift toward characters who might read one way on a page, and I like to find layers to that character.’

‘I think a lot of people could have looked at Cassie like, on the show, a lot of people they do sexualize her they look at her as one way.’

‘Finding the layers and just, the emotional depth to who she is and why she is, how she acts or how she thinks, she’s a beautiful, broken character.’

Euphoria has been renewed for a third season, and the Spokane, Washington native said Cassie will be up to more of her antics. 

‘I love playing Cassie, because last season she was so crazy.’

‘As an actor, it’s so much fun to just stretch your legs and go insane and do all these crazy choices, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what Cassie does season three.’ 

In speaking about how the show resonates with teens of today, Sydney gave another example from her family.

‘My brother, when he was like a freshman and sophomore in college, they were throwing Euphoria college-themed parties. He was like, “I can’t escape it.”‘