‘Euphoria’ Forced Sydney Sweeney to Stop Caring About Screengrabs
Though Sydney Sweeney was stacking her resume long before Euphoria, playing Cassie Howard has still been a boon to her career. Being a part of one of HBO’s most popular shows has meant that Sweeney’s fame has skyrocketed. Furthermore, her performance in the sophomore season of the hit show earned her first of two Emmy nominations.
Sydney Sweeney speaks highly of her time on ‘Euphoria’
Sweeney has been candid about the fact that she loves working on Euphoria. She has developed a close bond with her fellow castmates and the crew. But being on the show has had its pain points as well. One big one is that screengrabs were taken from the show and posted all over the Internet.
Nude screengrabs of the actor were taken without her consent
Fans of Euphoria will recall that part of Cassie’s storyline centers around how overly sexualized she is. In season 1, she is coerced into taking nude photos by her various boyfriends. Those photos were then shared around without Cassie’s consent. Unfortunately, something similar happened to Sweeney when screengrabs were taken of her work on the show and plastered on social media without context or her consent.
Sweeney admits that when she first learned of this happening, she was rightfully extremely upset. And when her little brother was tagged in said screengrabs, she got even more hurt. And while Sweeney shares that there’s no true way to cope with such a violation, she has gotten used to screengrabs. She does, however, question why there aren’t stricter rules in place on social media to prevent this phenomenon from happening.
How Sweeney is able to separate herself from the nude photos
“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 explained to The Guardian. Continuing on, The White Lotus alum explained that she thinks of her characters as completely separate from her. This helps her to dissociate a bit whenever she comes across a nude screengrab.
“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,” Sweeney explained. “It’s like ‘Oh, that’s Cassie. Cassie’s having a good day.’”
Can social media apps do more to protect Sweeney and other actors?
Though Sweeney may have found a way to deal with the screengrabs, she shouldn’t have to. Consenting to perform nude in order to tell a story shouldn’t mean that others should be able to take a screengrab and post at whim without context or consequence. Perhaps one day, there will be more restrictions in place to help protect Sweeney and other actors from these types of violations.
