EUPHORIA fans hastily anticipate the release of Season 3 as the show's future hangs in limbo due to the actor's and writer's strike in Hollywood.
The unapologetically controversial coming-of-age show, which premiered in 2019, depicted sex and drug abuse and addressed issues young adults face.
The raunchy and sultry sex scenes displayed in the drama polarised viewers, with some scenes leaving fans glued to their screens and others not so much.
The cast of the record-breaking hit show praised intimacy coordinators for setting boundaries on sex scenes and keeping them comfortable throughout.
Sydney Sweeney(Casey Howard) has slammed critics who think the show is too sexually excessive and unveiled that since being in the show, she feels 'so free and confident' due to her character, Cassie.
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She expressed: "You have me, you have Z, you have all of these very strong-minded, independent women.
"If we didn't feel comfortable with something, or we saw something we didn't like, we'd all speak up.
"It's hard to see someone completely trashed by the public and the media when no one's actually there.
"We are there, and clearly we're still working on the show, and we're still supportive... The point is making people uncomfortable, and thinking outside the box."
Alexa Demie (Maddy) agreed with her co-star as she told Vogue: "[They] pulled me out of my comfort zone."
"I think everything that we do in the show we're not like glorifying it. I think we show all the consequences."
The most contentious sex scenes in Euphoria tackled sexual taboos from full-frontal male nudity to a harrowing statutory rape scene which left a dark but realistic message (which will not be included in this article).
Another scene that became a hot topic was the locker room scene in Season 1, where 30 penises appeared in the shot, which created massive shock value, but producer Sam Levinson told The Hollywood he planned for 'like 80 more' in that scene.
He explained: "We wanted to portray the sex and the sexual situations as awkwardly as possible in the way that most sexual situations are when you're younger,"
"They're kind of dumbfounding. And our camera movement and our shot selection is far more rigid.
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"The camera is normally not moving—they're statics, they're close-ups on faces, wide shots … Sometimes you just want the camera to just be still because you can't look away."
Zendaya (Rue) also warned fans that season 2 was "deeply emotional and deals with subject matter that can be triggering and difficult to watch." in an Instagram post before the season premiere.
With no release date in sight for the long-awaited Season 3, let's look back at some of the most outrageous sex scenes from Seasons 1 and 2 of the HBO series. (Warning: Spoilers and NSFW content ahead.)
Euphoria Sex Scenes
Season 1, Episode 1 - Cassie and McKay get intimate for the first time
The first sex scene shown in Euphoria is of Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and McKay (Algee Smith) having sex for the first time.
McKay tries to choke her during foreplay and fails, but she immediately stops him.
Rue's (Zendaya) voiceover narrated: "Now, I know this looks disturbing, but I promise you, this does not end in rape,"
She continued: "basically what you'd see" in the "20 most popular videos on PornHub." At that moment, it flashed to graphic porn clips.
McKay and Cassie eventually sit down to clear the air and discuss what happened.
Speaking about the scene, Levinson told The Hollywood Reporter:"It's about consent inside of sex, but it's also about agency and being able to own up to what you want, what you don't want, when you want it—and it's also about acknowledging when you have crossed a line or made a mistake,"
He added: "I'm not interested in having things that feel like they're teaching a lesson for everyone as opposed to exploring the kind of nuances of what leads to an uncomfortable situation like that."
Season 1, Episode 4 - Cassie's drug-fuelled intimate carousel horse scene
This scene was not a sex scene but had sexually explicit elements worth noting.
While on a carousel horse ride at the carnival, Cassie has an NSFW moment during a drug and drama-filled night.
In Season 2, Lexi creates a play onstage that mimicked Cassie's moment with the horse, which prompted Maddy(Alexa Demie) to ask, "Is this f--king play about us?" bar the cringe moments of the play, it was blatantly obvious what the answer to that question was.
Euphoria isn't for the faint-hearted, and most people would avoid watching it with senior family members, but Sweeney has admitted that her whole family have seen most of her sultry scenes in Season 1.
She's revealed that she had invited them to the premiere without considering the sexual content.
While on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, She explained, "I invited my grandparents, my uncles—I was like, 'It's a Hollywood premiere, you've got to come!'"
"And we were all sitting next to each other and [it was a] giant screen, like ginormous screen…I wasn't thinking. I was so excited."
After watching the show, the actress said her grandparents titled her with 'the best tits in Hollywood,'
Season 1, Episode 6- Ethan performed oral sex on Kat during the Halloween party
Ethan (Austin Abrams) and Kat (Barbie Ferreira) end up alone in the bathroom after having a sexually tension-filled and tense conversation during a Halloween party.
Ethan convinces Kat to meet him in the bathroom alone so he can show her what he is working with after she teased him for being a virgin.
He quickly displayed his mouth skills, which seemingly impressed her as she enjoyed the moment in her holy nun outfit. Thankfully, he didn't do it with his vampire teeth in.
This scene might have you peeping through your hands if you've ever watched it with your mum, but Ferreira's mum was unmoved.
In an interview with Showmax Stories in 2019, he revealed: "I've warned her several times [about the sex scenes], and she's like, 'Who cares if you have a sex scene? It's art!'"
Season 2, Episode 1- Cassie and Nate hooked up in the bathroom
Cassie(Sydney Sweeney) and Nate's (Jacob Elordi) memorable first hook-up happened at a New Year's party in the bathroom after Cassie took her underwear off in Nate's car.
Nate is known for his playboy antics on the show and was dating Maddy, Cassie's best friend, who soon interrupts the pair's intimate moment by knocking on the door.
Cassie starts to panic while trying to escape as Nate tries to help her calm down while Maddy continues to pound the door aggressively.
After the premiere of Season 2, Cosmopolitan spoke to Sweeney about filming her sex scenes.
She called the process "technical and not romantic." and added, "There are people staring at you, pads between you; there's nipple covers and weird sticker thongs all up your butt."
The second sex scene of Season 2 displayed full-frontal male nudity. An unnamed guest at the party (Ansel Pierce) goes in to use the bathroom that Cassie is hiding in.
Stars of the show, including Eric Dane as Cal Jacobs, mostly use prosthetics, with Pierce taking to TikTok to set the record straight about his own half-naked scene, stating, "yeah, that was me."
Season 2, Episode 2- Nate's sexual fantasy about Cassie
Nothing is off the table on Euphoria, as even dreams can be sexualised.
Nate's dream starts off entirely innocent, with him and Cassie in front of a fire as she laid naked on a bear rug and then cradles a baby bump.
While on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the star was asked how he felt about getting naked as Nate.
Elordi replied: "You have no choice—every scene is like, 'He sleeps with this person, he does this with this person naked."
The actor added that it came 'with the territory' of his "macho jock" character.
He unveiled that the show's intimacy coordinator is "a second mother" when shooting the scenes, "she's like, 'Are you comfortable? Are you okay?'
Speaking with the Independent, Sydney admitted that Levinson was receptive to her notes on scenes with nudity. "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.'"
She also told them: "I'm very proud of my work in Euphoria. I thought it was a great performance. But no one talks about it because I got naked,"
"I do The White Lotus, and all of a sudden critics are paying attention … They're going, 'Oh my God, what's she doing next?' I was like, 'Did you not see that in Euphoria?"
Season 2, Episode 2 - Kat's Game of Thrones sexual fantasy
Kat is a unique character, to say the least, as she always has the audience guessing.
Kat seems to be a fan of another sex-filled HBO show that she ended up sexually fantasising over in Season 2.
The fan fiction-loving teen Game of Thrones-themed dream tops any steamy story she has ever penned.
During her lustful encounter with the handsome Dothraki warrior who enters her bedroom and slays her boyfriend Ethan- who the warrior refers to as a weakling- before having sex with her.
Season 2, Episode 4 - Elliot taught Jules how to perform oral sex, which ended with them having sex
Jules (Hunter Schafer) tells Elliot(Dominic Fike) about the disappointing time she performed oral sex on Rue for the first time, and she faked an orgasm because she was too high to enjoy the moment.
Elliot insists on helping her by showing her how to perform oral sex. He puts his mouth to her hand to show her how it's done, but the two soon put practice into action and cheat. Soon after they finish, Rue enters.
Speaking about filming sex scenes, Schafer told The Hollywood Reporter: "The intimacy coordinator was amazing as far as being able to create clear boundaries and navigate a scene,"
"I think one, all Jules really wants is romance despite the constant highly sexual hook-ups she has. I think the way she wants to engage people is with some form of love and care."
Season 2, Episode 3- Cal's coming of age story
During Cal's (Elias Kacavas) coming-of-age storyline, we see him exploring his sexuality and identity as he tries to grasp who he is. We are taken back to the character's high school years when he met his now-wife Marsha (Rebecca Louise), his first love and frequent hook-up.
Cal and his best friend Derek (Henry Eikenberry) spark a mutual attraction after their steamy kiss while hanging out at a bar.
Dane believes Cal's story was handled in a "pretty deft" way and told Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview: "I love the actor that played young Cal.
"He was just fantastic. And you knew there had to be some sort of cause or condition that was placed on Cal for him to turn out the way he turned out,
"Which is this horribly complicated, terrifically conflicted, and confused person who's trying to figure out his journey, at however old he is, and start living his truth."
