Sam Levinson is not backing away from Euphoria's portrayal of OnlyFans. Following criticism of the HBO series' final season, the creator appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher to explain the thinking behind the show's treatment of the platform.
Levinson described his approach as a deliberate choice to examine something large and largely unexamined.
"If you look at OnlyFans, it is making as much money as Hollywood. I mean, essentially it's on par," he told Maher. "It's not a niche business, it is a massive enterprise. And so if you're young, you're going, 'I don't want to go work in a 9-to-5 at this place or that thing. Well, maybe I can just start taking photos of myself.'"
He continued: "The question is, what are the long-term consequences of that? What happens when you know, as a young person, you're on Instagram and these things, 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?' And I just thought chasing that desire, that kind of fast cash, was an interesting thing to kind of explore."
Levinson also addressed what he called a double standard in the criticism the show received.
"Also, at the same time, we caught a lot of criticism for it, but there's a part of me that wonders, if the show kind of affirmed this life and how empowering it was, whether we would get the same criticism. You know, we take a fairly critical look at it. It hollows out the individual. You know, you're constantly just depending on the likes and external validation."
In Euphoria's third and final season, Cassie, played by Sydney Sweeney, joins OnlyFans to pay for her $50,000 wedding to Nate, played by Jacob Elordi. The season drew objections from OnlyFans creators who said the show relied on harmful stereotypes, including a scene depicting age-play, which is prohibited on the actual platform.
Chloe Cherry, who worked as an adult film actress and OnlyFans creator before joining Euphoria as Faye Valentine in Season 2, was among those who commented on Cassie's arc.
"It's really hard to say if it would give her any power. Obviously Cassie is extremely attractive, so it probably would lead to her making a lot of money," said Cherry. "But it just feels crazy as fuck to see somebody living like Cassie turn to sex work. It's like, holy shit, that's where we're at in society? I really think that OnlyFans is a crazy, weird phenomenon of the 2020s that we will look back on and be very confused by."
Cherry also said that sex work is gaining mainstream acceptance "only because of capitalism and the economy getting worse," and that it "has nothing to do with empowerment or power or anything."
Maher described Maddy, the character played by Alexa Demie, as the season's moral center. Levinson responded that her role managing the other girls represented "an all new industry," calling it "sort of light pimping."
