Those shots of Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie in Euphoria Season 3 dressed up like a puppy for her brand new OF page has gone around the Internet so many times it’s practically banal. The actress has filmed nudity for the NSFW HBO Max show before, but she’s said it’s always been a bit of an out-of-body experience. What does she mean by that? She means filming for Cassie doesn’t feel like the same thing as having her own literal OnlyFans page.
The actress actually touched on this situation related to her Euphoria character, and explained that she is separate from the characters she's portrayed that have engaged in intimate scenes. It feels like such an obvious thing to note as I’m typing it out here, but obviously if Sweeney had to go on the record about it, it’s not that obvious to everyone. She told Grazia:
I’m so disconnected from it. When I get tagged in Cassie’s or The Voyeurs’ Pippa’s nudes, it feels like me looking at their nudes, not Sydney’s nudes.
In short, it’s character work. Yet, not everyone seems to see it that way.
Sweeney’s been candid about the fact that others have trouble separating her from her characters. She previously spoke about online hate she’s received for playing Cassie before, and said at the time fans really see her as the character, and not her own independent person, a person who has also played Christy Martin, starred in rom-coms and produced a lot of her own work.
Why Filming Intimate Scenes Is Not As Interesting As It Looks
Sydney Sweeney notes there’s a “double standard” applied when women get nude in Hollywood projects versus men (though it’s worth noting full-frontal nudity and prosthetic penises are still definitely topics of discussion when they come up). She’s said because she agreed to do nudity to play Cassie, she’s had trouble “getting past that' in Hollywood. She also clarified that filming intimate scenes or nude scenes is not nearly as romantic as it may look on screen.
There are people around, it’s uncomfortable, there are intimacy coordinators dictating movements if actors get aroused, and finally, you aren’t really nude. At least, not fully, per Sydney Sweeney.
When you film one of these scenes, it is so technical and so not romantic. There are people staring at you, there’s pads between you, there’s nipple covers and weird sticker thongs all up in your butt.
I’ll never forget the moment the Fifty Shades of Grey cast spoke about filming intimate in the buff and Jamie Dornan brought up the idea of a “wee bag” that covered his private parts. Honestly, at this point it’s certainly unglamorous to know how these scenes are shot. Because of this, it's easy to see how actors are able to keep their characters and the work they do separate from their personal lives. Their take on filming is very different than what we see onscreen.
