‘Euphoria’: Sydney Sweeney on Cassie Hate in Season 2: ‘I Try to Separate My Judgments’
Euphoria brought Cassie Howard to the forefront of its second season as she carried on an affair with her best friend Maddy Perez’s boyfriend Nate Jacobs. (It was her boyfriend, Cassie!) Cassie faced an onslaught of hate from fans, many of whom expected her to be on an upward trajectory after the events of Euphoria Season 1. But Sydney Sweeney had different opinions.
Sydney Sweeney addressed the Cassie backlash in ‘Euphoria’ Season 2
Sweeney told Gold Derby that, as soon as she found out about Cassie and Nate’s relationship, she figured “everyone’s gonna hate Cassie.”
“I knew it,” she recalled. “[I was like], oh man, ‘people are gonna be very upset with her.’”
She continued, analyzing Cassie and her choices.
“Cassie, she thinks and does everything from her heart without actually using her brain. So everything is just so emotional and so heavy on her,” Sweeney explained. “And I think that’s where people kind of felt empathy where, you knew she was just truly going and moving with her heart and know she’s going to get hurt.”
“So I just wanted to make sure that everything she did was so truthful and so honest, and so just deep within her, where you start to just cringe because it’s so sad, but so beautiful,” she continued, “because it’s coming from a good, honest place. But it’s just not the right decisions she’s making.”
Cassie got a lot of hate, but the actor has received much praise for her performance
Although Cassie received plenty of backlash for her affair and betrayal of Maddy, viewers loved Sweeney’s performance. She had the character trending online constantly and was even crowned the “acting MVP” of the season by Vanity Fair.
When its comes to her own feelings about Cassie, Sweeney said she tries “not to judge her or any of [her] characters.”
“‘Cause then I feel like I’ll put my own biased opinion and twist on them,” she continued. “So I kind of look at it from an actor’s perspective of, oh this is so cool to be able to go to these places as an actor and explore these different emotions and scenes and relationships, and I try to separate my own judgments from her.”
Cassie’s future in ‘Euphoria’ Season 3
Ultimately, the season ended with Nate and Cassie’s breakup. Their split could possibly pave the way for a Maddy and Nate reunion in Euphoria Season 3. But Sweeney acknowledged that anything could happen with the way show creator Sam Levinson works.
“When we finished Season 1 we knew we were getting picked up for Season 2, and I had all of these ideas that I thought was gonna happen for Cassie,” Sweeney said in response to a question about the direction of the third season. “And then I was completely thrown off by what Sam told me it was gonna happen.”
“And I, of course, loved all of his ideas way more than mine. So I think that I’m kind of just waiting to see what happens because I really enjoy being shocked and surprised and never knowing what’s gonna happen next with Cassie,” she added.
Euphoria Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming now on HBO Max.
