Sydney Sweeney revealed in a new interview with GQ UK that social media users have tagged her family members in posts depicting her “Euphoria” nude scenes. In the first season of the Emmy-winning HBO drama, Sweeney’s character, Cassie, is subjected to a nude photo leak. Those same images in the show were screen-shotted by viewers and then circulated online.
“It got to the point where they were tagging my family,” Sweeney said (via Insider). “My cousins don’t need that. It’s completely disgusting and unfair. You have a character that goes through the scrutiny of being a sexualized person at school and then an audience that does the same thing.”
Despite social media users notifying her family members about her nudity, Sweeney answered “not anymore” when asked if viewers circulating her nude images bothers her. The Emmy nominee added, “I think it’s ridiculous. I’m an artist, I play characters. It makes me want to play characters that piss people off more.”
Speaking to The Guardian last year, Sweeney said she was working hard to dissociate herself from her character Cassie in order not to be emotionally affected by “Euphoria” nudity being shared on social media.
“To be honest, after ‘Euphoria,’ I had to stop caring or thinking about [screengrabs] because the tiny little pictures that were on one of the character’s phones blew up everywhere,” Sweeney said. “I am very different from my characters, and so when I see those kind of pictures or I get tagged in those kind of pictures — which I think is crazy that they can have nudity on social media that is me and I don’t approve it, but that’s another story — I just separate myself from it. It’s like ‘Oh, that’s Cassie. Cassie’s having a good day.'”
Sweeney participated in PvNew’s “Actors on Actors” series earlier this year and stressed that “Euphoria’s” safe set has made her comfortable with being nude on camera.
“It’s a very safe environment. I’m very fortunate that I am coming up during a time where there is so much thought in this process, and we now have intimacy coordinators,” Sweeney told Christina Ricci. “I have weirdly become very confident with my body through Cassie.”
Sweeney will return for a third season of “Euphoria” in 2023. She’s also got a handful of high profile movie projects on the way, including Sony’s “Spider-Man” universe movie “Madame Web” and a “Barbarella” reboot.
