Sam Levinson has reflected on the fate of Angus Cloud’s character in Euphoria following the actor’s sudden death in July.
Speaking to People for an emotional profile on the late actor, who was only 25 when he passed away of drug overdose, Levinson revealed that Cloud’s character, Fezco was originally supposed to die at the end of season 2, however, he couldn’t bring himself to end his chapter so soon.
“Angus was supposed to die at the end of the first season, but I loved him so [expletive] much,” the showrunner explained. “I think part of the problem is I would sometimes put actors ahead of the show at times. So I was like, ‘OK, I can’t kill him because then what is he to look forward to?’”
Levinson began to notice the repercussions of substance abuse on the late actor, and tried to encite him to get clean by making him look forward toward “amazing” season 3 he had planned for him.
However, “I could always feel that he didn’t want [sobriety] as much as we all wanted it for him,” shared Levinson. “But you can’t give up on people. I wasn’t going to let anyone give up on him.”
The Season 2 finale of Euphoria saw Ashtray, played by Javon Walton, save his older brother Fezco by jumping in front of a hail of gunfire aimed at him.
Levinson revealed that it wasn’t part of the initial storyline, which he ended up altering after seeing Cloud’s downtrodden reaction after hearing the plot of his character’s death.
“I could just see the blood kind of run out of his face. I think the hardest thing is when you have addiction issues — it’s about finding your purpose and finding your meaning in life. The one thing that I knew is he loved making this show,” he shared.
“He loved the crew. He loved the actors. He loved everything about it. And I just thought, if this goes away, I don’t know what’s going to happen in his life,” Levinson said. “We got to keep him around. He’s too special. It doesn’t matter what the [expletive] story is.”
[via]
