Sydney Sweeney is at risk of making nudity ‘her entire brand’ following her most racy scenes yet in Euphoria’s final season, it has been claimed.
The third and final series of the HBO show has seen her character Cassie Howard launch a career as an OnlyFans model, with divisive scenes showing her fully nude, engaged in graphic sex scenes and dressing up as an adult baby.
While Sydney’s role in the hit show has helped turn her into a global name, industry experts now believe the focus on nudity could be taking attention away from her acting skills.
Some experts fear that the Euphoria star, 28, could now become ‘typecast’, with sexualised characters becoming ‘her entire brand proposition’.
Speaking to Fox News, crisis and reputation management expert Dave Quast said: ‘Euphoria clearly helped establish Sydney Sweeney as a fearless performer, physically and emotionally, and that’s part of why she broke through.
‘The risk is that when the public conversation focuses more on the sexualised aspects of the role than on the performance, the same work that made her seem daring can start to narrow the brand’.
Sydney Sweeney is at risk of making nudity ‘her entire brand’ following her most racy scenes yet in Euphoria’s final season, it has been claimed
The third and final series of the HBO show has seen Sydney’s character Cassie Howard become an OnlyFans model, with divisive scenes seeing her nude and dressing up as a dog
‘Sexuality on screen is not inherently unserious. The problem is when it becomes the dominant shorthand for the actor.
‘For Sweeney, the challenge is not that she has played sexualised roles. The challenge is making sure those roles continue to read as character choices, not as the entire brand proposition.’
The actress has been accused by fans of putting herself through a ‘humiliation ritual’, as degrading plot-lines showed her raciest scenes yet.
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson recently defended himself against fan outrage over the sexualised direction Sydney’s character took.
According to Sam, who wrote and directed all eight episodes of the third and final season, it was Sweeney who practically forced him to include copious nudity for her character.
During an appearance on Sunday’s episode of the New York Times’ Popcast – which was released shortly after the Euphoria finale aired – Sam said that he had initially considered a version of the season that was more tasteful and minimised nude scenes for Cassie.
After co-host Joe Coscarelli referenced the shocking intro to this season’s fifth episode, which featured a bizarre montage of Sydney performing nude fetish scenes for her fans, Sam replied: ‘Well, it’s funny. When I first wrote it, I thought, “Well, maybe we shoot all of this and we don’t have any nudity.”
‘I was talking to her, and you know, [I said] “Maybe there’s ways to shoot around certain things?”‘
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While her role in the hit show has helped turn her into a global name, industry experts now fear the strong focus on nudity is taking attention away from her acting skills
Since shooting to fame on the HBO series when it first aired in 2019, the actress has frequently faced typecasting as the ‘sexualised’ girl (pictured in The Housemaid)
In 2021’s erotic thriller The Vouyers, Sydney played the role of Pippa who moves into a Montreal apartment with boyfriend Thomas (Justice Smith)
Sydney starred in 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You alongside Glen Powell, 37
According to the writer and director – who is the son of iconic filmmaker Barry Levinson – Sweeney put her foot down after he tried to chicken out.
‘She looked at me, and she was like, “Are you kidding? It’s like, I’m playing an OnlyFans model. You’re telling me you’re going to, like, skirt around it?”
‘And I was like, “Yeah, OK, it’s a fair point,”‘ he added. ‘So there’s always a discussion of what works best for the character.’
Sam went on to praise Sydney as a ‘totally fearless actor’ and said she was ‘wonderfully professional’ and ‘show[ed] up game every day’ to set.
‘I adore working with her, because there’s such a flexibility in terms of the performance,’ he continued.
Sydney previously told Entertainment Tonight: ‘I mean, Cassie’s a crazy character.
‘She will do anything and at all costs to be famous this season, and she makes a lot of very wild and interesting choices.’
Sam previously defended the explicit nature of his work, noting during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival: ‘We live in a very sexualised world.
‘The influence of pornography is really strong in terms of the psyche of young people.’
Hot off the heels of Euphoria’s final episode, Sydney is leaning into her producing and potentially directing aspirations.
The actress has formed Honey Trap, alongside her longtime creative collaborator Kaylee McGregor, who will serve as president of development and production, according to Deadline.
In addition, Sydney’s new company has set up a first-look deal at Sony Pictures, where she previously worked on Anyone But You, and will again work with them on the upcoming Barbarella, which Edgar Wright will direct.
Sydney and Kaylee already have two upcoming projects together, as listed on IMDb – Custom of the Country, and The Housemaid sequel, The Housemaid’s Secret.
Since shooting to fame on the HBO series when it first aired in 2019, the actress has frequently faced typecasting as the ‘sexualised,’ ‘sensual,’ or ’emotionally complicated’ girl.
She tried to swap her glamorous persona to portray the rugged, real-life 1990s trailblazing boxer Christy Martin in her biopic Christy.
But the 2025 movie was a flop, as it became one of the worst-grossing wide-released movies in US box office history.
She then returned to her sexy characters, most recently playing Millie Calloway in the 2025 film adaptation of The Housemaid.
Her character is a young woman with a criminal record who takes a job as a live-in housemaid for a wealthy family. She ends up having an affair with the husband, who turns out not to be all that innocent.
There were numerous nude scenes for her character in the movie as well as a steamy hotel sex scene with hunky co-star Brandon Sklenar.
She tried to swap her glamorous persona to portray the rugged, real-life 1990s trailblazing boxer Christy Martin in her biopic Christy
But the 2025 movie Christy was a flop, as it became one of the worst-grossing wide-released movies in US box office history. She then returned to her sexy characters (pictured in Euphoria)
Social media was quickly flooded with outrage, with many viewers accusing the actress of ‘sexualising herself at every opportunity’ in every role she lands.
In 2021’s erotic thriller The Voyeurs, Sydney played the role of Pippa, who moves into a Montreal apartment with boyfriend Thomas (Justice Smith).
The young couple become obsessed with watching their neighbours across the street, with the actress going topless for one saucy scene.
Sydney was once again topless for 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You, which she starred in alongside Glen Powell, 37.
While the story was based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, this version saw the couple strip off for a sexy shower scene.
Sydney told The Independent in 2022 that she believed there was a ‘stigma against actresses who get naked on screen’.
She said: ‘When a guy has a sex scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise. But the moment a girl does it, it’s completely different’.
Before going on to admit that it ‘bothered’ her that most of the attention surrounding her onscreen performance was focused on her nude scenes.
‘I’m very proud of my work in Euphoria. I thought it was a great performance. But no one walks about it because I got naked, I do The White Lotus and all of a sudden critics are paying attention.
‘People are loving me. They’re going: “Oh my God, what’s she doing next?” I was like: “Did you not see that in Euphoria? Did you not see that in The Handmaid’s Tale?”‘.
Sydney later told Variety in 2024 that she often felt ‘dehumanised’ by the constant online scrutiny over her body, saying: ‘I see it, and I just can’t allow myself to have a reaction. I don’t know how to explain it – I’m still trying to figure it out myself,’
‘People feel connected and free to be able to speak about me in whatever way they want, because they believe that I’ve signed my life away.
‘That I’m not on a human level anymore, because I’m an actor. That these characters are for everybody else, but then me as Sydney is not for me anymore.
‘It’s this weird relationship that people have with me that I have no control or say over.’
