Minka Kelly opened up about about her first day filming the HBO drama Euphoria, and how she pushed back on a potential nude scene.
The Titans and Friday Night Lights actress was introduced in Season 2 as Samantha, a wealthy mother who hires Maddy (Alexa Demie) as a babysitter. The scene in question had her returning home from a date with her husband, then asking Maddy to help unzip her dress.
During an interview with Vanity Fair, Kelly said Euphoria creator Sam Levinson “thought it would be more interesting if my dress fell to the ground,” but she wasn’t completely on board.
“That was my first day as a guest on this new show, and I just didn’t feel comfortable standing there naked,” she recalled. “I said, ‘I’d love to do this scene, but I think we can keep my dress on.’ He was like, ‘OK!’ He didn’t even hesitate. And he shot a beautiful scene and got exactly what he wanted.”
As pointed out by Dazed, Kelly, 41, isn’t the only Euphoria star who has expressed concern over potentially excessive nudity. Sydney Sweeney previously told the Independent her character Cassie was supposed to have a lot more topless scenes, but she asked Levinson to cut them out.
“There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless and I would tell Sam, ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here,’” Sweeney told the outlet. “He was like, ‘OK, we don’t need it.’ I’ve never felt like Sam 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.”
Chloe Cherry, who was introduced in Season 2 as the drug-addicted Faye, shared a similar anecdote in a Daily Beast interview, recalling her first scene with onscreen boyfriend Custer (Tyler Chase).
“We just met and said, ‘Hey, how are you?’ and then shot the scene,” Cherry said. “It probably would’ve been more comfortable had we had a little more time to know each other. Sam wanted to do the scene with me completely naked and Tyler was like, ‘That’s a lot,’ so they decided not to. But I was covered in fake blood and just felt so good being on set.”
Martha Kelly, who plays the drug-dealer Laurie, told Variety she was “heartbroken” over certain scenes she believed were far too creepy.
“When I first read the scripts, I was heartbroken, because I didn’t know if I could do it and I really wanted to be on the show. But it’s difficult to want to play a character that hurts kids,” she said. “There is that scene where Rue is getting into the tub, and Laurie injects her with morphine—and in the script, it is even creepier, because Laurie is helping her undress and get in the tub, and it is approaching this gross pedophilia vibe. Initially, I was just like, ‘I can’t do this.’”
After speaking to Levinson, Kelly decided not to request any tweaks. “I met with Sam and he was so lovely about it,” she recalled. “I spoke with him and decided not to ask him to change anything, because I feel very strongly that I’m more of a comedian than an actor, so I would never tell a writer or a director if they could change something for me because I feel so lucky to have been invited in the first place.”
