Highlights
- Sam Levinson defends Cassie’s OnlyFans arc on “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
- He says OnlyFans “is making as much money as Hollywood” today.
- Levinson admits backlash but stands by show’s “critical look” at the platform.
Sam Levinson isn’t backing down from the OnlyFans drama that rocked Euphoria’s final season, and he’s got receipts.
The HBO showrunner addressed the firestorm over Sydney Sweeney‘s Cassie Howard turning to sex work in season 3, defending the choice during a sit down on Real Time With Bill Maher that aired Friday, nearly three weeks after the show wrapped its run.
Levinson didn’t mince words about why he went there. “If you look at Only Fans, it is making as much money as Hollywood. I mean, essentially it’s on par,” he said. “It’s not a niche business, it is a massive enterprise.”
The director explained the storyline, which saw Cassie team up with Alexa Demie‘s Maddy Perez as her manager, was meant to mirror real anxieties facing young people today. “And so if you’re young, you’re going … ‘I don’t want to go work in a nine to five at this place or that thing.'”
He pushed further into the social media angle that fueled Cassie’s arc. “What happens when you know, as a young person, you’re on Instagram … and you’re told that you’re the product, you’re the brand, and now you’re 18 years old, and you’re going well, ‘How do I make money?'” he asked Maher.
Levinson admitted the backlash stung, but he’s not convinced the show would have fared any better had it gone the other way. “You know, we take a fairly critical look at it,” he noted. “It hollows out the individual. You know, you’re constantly just depending on the likes and external validation.”
He also gave Maddy her due as the season’s moral compass. “She was managing the girls, which is an all new industry,” Levinson reminded Maher. “It’s sort of light pimping.”
Cassie’s OnlyFans hustle, which she launched to help cover her $50,000 wedding to Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi), drew sharp criticism from real creators who said scenes like one in which Cassie is in a diaper and pacifier leaned on harmful stereotypes about the industry.
Levinson also confirmed there’s no walking back the show’s ending, calling the season 3 finale “a natural conclusion” for the series.
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