Euphoria's second season has come to end and, in the words of Cassie, we've never ever been happier.
It's not that we didn't enjoy the sophomore season of the Sam Levinson-created teen drama, but we just found the latest installment wildly stressful. Over the last seven weeks, we watched Rue (Zendaya) struggle with addiction, almost get human trafficked, kick down a door and alienate every loved one in her life. Thankfully, not all hope was lost, as the season two finale showed Rue preparing to make amends for her drug-fueled wrongdoings.
Still, Rue wasn't the only character to have an emotionally charged second season. Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) suffered a full on breakdown after sleeping with her best friend's ex, Maddy (Alexa Demie) experienced a trauma worse than her season one strangulation and Ethan (Austin Abrams) broke out of his comfort zone with a homoerotic dance number in the school play.
We're exhausted writing all of that, so it isn't surprising that Zendaya described filming this season as "f--king brutal" to The Cut.
What's even crazier? This isn't even the season of television we were originally supposed to see. As Zendaya admitted in her interview, the original season two scripts—which Sam rewrote during the COVID-19-related pause on production—are nothing like what aired in 2022.
She revealed, "The things that didn't make it [to your screen] definitely needed to die."
With the new storylines, season two proved to be an even bigger rollercoaster than the first season of Euphoria. For everything the cast has said about making season two, scroll through the gallery below.
As questions arose about Euphoria's use of nudity and drugs, Eric Dane told E! News that "it's all got a purpose."
"And as long as it's purposeful in the context of the story, then I think it's useful," he continued. "As far as the drugs go, you know, I never thought this show is a love letter to drugs. It's, as far as I've seen, nothing I want to partake in. In fact, it to me it seems more like a cautionary tale."
After making a splash with his "Holding Out for a Hero" dance number on Euphoria, Austin Abrams shared that the scene was originally meant to be even more erotic. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Austin said the script had him in his underwear and "lathered down in oil and doing all these things."
By the time shooting occurred, the scene was updated to Austin wearing a football uniform, which was a relief to him as he "thought it was just going to be barefoot."
Season two saw Alexa Demie's confident character Maddy facing a breakdown, as her ex-boyfriend Nate (Jacob Elordi) traumatized her with a manipulative game of Russian roulette.
"It was an incredibly difficult scene not only because of the gun to my head," Alexa told Entertainment Weekly, "but because it was choreographed in a really specific way. We had to move with the camera movements and it was really broken up, and so it took us two days to shoot. It was basically all we did all day on those days."
In an interview with The Cut, Zendaya called her character reaching rock bottom in season two "f--king brutal."
"I can mostly shake it off," she said of her challenging part. "But there are days where you're just in it, and even if your brain knows it's not real, your body takes on this anxiousness and anger."
Sydney Sweeney responded to the concern that her character was often nude by telling The Independent, "I've never felt like [creator] Sam [Levinson] has pushed it on me or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show. When I didn't want to do it, he didn't make me."
She did admit that she asked for certain scenes to be cut, adding, "There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless and I would tell Sam, ‘I don't really think that's necessary here. He was like, ‘OK, we don't need it.'"
Sydney later told E! News' Daily Pop, "I think that if it's important to the character, then it's important to the character."
During an interview with Vanity Fair, Minka Kelly (who plays Maddy's employer Samantha) revealed that she wasn't "comfortable" with one planned nude scene in season two of Euphoria. Apparently, "[Sam Levinson] thought it would be more interesting if my dress fell to the ground," and scripted it that way originally.
But, after voicing her concern, the scene was altered to just have Maddy (Alexa Demie) unzip Samantha's dress. "He was like, 'OK!'" she added. "He didn't even hesitate. And he shot a beautiful scene and got exactly what he wanted."
Euphoria newcomer Chloe Cherry told Daily Beast that her first scene, where she is shoved into a vent by boyfriend Custer (Tyler Chase), was originally scripted as a nude scene. She shared, "Sam wanted to do the scene with me completely naked and Tyler was like, ‘That's a lot,' so they decided not to."
Following the debut of her scary drug dealer character Laurie on Euphoria, actress Martha Kelly shared with Variety that her role was even creepier on paper. "Laurie is helping her undress and get in the tub," she said of the written scene, "and it is approaching this gross pedophilia vibe. Initially, I was just like, 'I can't do this.'"
She ultimately chose not to say anything, but the creator ended up changing up the scene anyways. "I was happy when Sam told me we were going to shoot the bathroom scene slightly out of focus," she continued, "and that some stuff was altered because of that pause we took in filming due to the pandemic."
In an interview with E! News, Javon Walton revealed he trained at a gun range to prepare for his big shoot out scene. "Parts of it are a little bit intimidating," he said. "Because I'm 15 years old."
However, Javon made sure to practice before filming, in order to make it safe while looking "super realistic."
Euphoria is available to stream on HBO Max.