‘Euphoria’: The Cast Took Naps Between Takes of 1 Iconic Scene
Working on Euphoria seems to be a lesson in stamina. The cast and crew of the hit HBO show spend close to a year filming the popular series. 12 to 18-hour days are pretty par for the course on Sam Levinson’s set. The director often works without a shot list, dreaming up things on the fly. Furthermore, the intricate cinematography that the show boasts often takes a bit of time and patience to execute.
The New Year’s Eve party from the ‘Euphoria’ Season 2 premiere took over a week to film
Fans may recall the Euphoria Season 2 premiere. The bulk of the episode takes place at a New Year’s Eve party. While viewers are at the party for under an hour, it actually took over a week to film. The cast and crew would shoot for 11 hours at a time, trying their best to make sure they got all of the footage that they needed.
In an interview with Thrillist, members of the Euphoria cast recalled how taxing filming the New Year’s Eve party was. Maude Apatow, who portrays Lexi Howard, revealed that she and her fellow actors would often try to catch some zzzs between takes.
Maude Apatow revealed that the cast would take naps between takes
“We shot all night, so we would start at 6 PM and go until whenever the sun would rise—5 AM—and we were so tired!” Apatow remembered of shooting the Euphoria Season 2 premiere. “There were certain days, or at least for a couple hours at a time, where we would all be hanging out in the green room together, and it would feel fun like we’re all hang out, but mostly we were all just trying to nap.”
Sydney Sweeney, who portrays Cassie Howard in the Euphoria cast, was quick to echo her on-screen sister’s sentiments. “When we were all hanging out, we would all just sleep,” Sweeney admitted. “We were trying so hard to stay awake!” Apatow agreed.
It seems that being at a house party for more than a week was taxing in more ways than one. Jacob Elordi, who plays the psychopathic Nate Jacobs, revealed that he was more than ready to leave the party when it was all said and done. The Euphoria actor even compared shooting the scene to purgatory.
Jacob Elordi compared filming the ‘Euphoria’ party scene to being in hell
“They do a really good job of creating the scale, though, when the cameras are moving through the rooms of hundreds of people,” Elordi added. “The thing is, we do it for so long. We shot that party for over a week, so very quickly it’s like being in Hell. It’s like being in a party that you don’t want to be in. At all. And you can’t wait [to leave].”
Clearly, the Euphoria Season 2 premiere wasn’t a cakewalk to film. However, considering viewers’ reaction to the episode, it seems as if the hard work of the cast and crew paid off.
