- 9 minutes ago
'Euphoria' creator Sam Levinson sat down with THR's Senior Writer David Canfield to chat all about the HBO series in a Directors in Focus conversation.
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00:01So maybe to start, you can sort of outline what kinds of reference points you were looking
00:05at and how you thought about evolving the show.
00:08Well, it's interesting.
00:10I think we sort of flirt with a bunch of different genres this season.
00:15But what's so spectacular about Zendaya as an actor is the physicality that she has.
00:24And I think it goes back to her Disney training, that she's able to sort of move with such
00:30a humor and tell a story.
00:33And so I always knew going into or opening up this season that I wanted to do something
00:39that really just threw us into the middle of the action, but with a certain kind of absurdity
00:47to it.
00:48And so we ended up having this border wall sequence, which I think we'll take a look
00:53at, but I sort of imagined it as like a mix of sort of Buster Keaton and sort of set
01:03in
01:03this sort of modern drug world.
01:08And just shooting it was just a blast because she's able to play to the humor and the suspense
01:17of it at the same time.
01:19But, I mean, screwballs, look, I watched so many old movies and my son, who's here in
01:27the audience tonight, we, you know, he's nine years old.
01:31Hey, Izzy.
01:32We, you know, we'll watch everything from, you know, Preston Sturges to, you know, to Howard
01:43Hawks, you know.
01:44And it's just, just seeing how excited and how much he laughs is just kind of gives you
01:55everything you need to know about the, just the pull of those films and the humor and the
02:02blocking of it.
02:03And so it was something that I certainly wanted to include in this season was a lot more humor
02:08throughout.
02:09So we weren't too, too in the kind of subjective emotional realities of the characters, but we
02:15were able to kind of pull back, make the camera a little bit wider and see them in these sort
02:19of
02:20larger spaces and allow them to, you know, see the tragedy and the humor of it.
02:26From what I understand, there was a great deal of research that went into that set piece,
02:30that image, right?
02:31Can you talk about that?
02:32Yeah.
02:32Well, originally, you know, I thought, well, maybe it'll be fun to have her like, you know,
02:36crossing, you know, some river and, you know, there's horses that are chasing her.
02:40And so I, you know, written that into the script, but as we started, you know, doing prep, you
02:47know, we went, we met with the, you know, the Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles
02:52and we went to their headquarters and I'm walking around their offices and, you know, they have
03:00like these photos of different busts, you know, that they've done.
03:04So it's like 18 kilos of cocaine in the back of this car.
03:08And, you know, it's sort of like the DGA, except it's drugs and money and guns.
03:14And, you know, and then I came across this one photo of a Jeep on top of the border wall.
03:20And I said, well, what happened here?
03:23And they said, you know, some fucking idiot tried to drive a car over the Mexican border
03:30into America and it got stuck, you know, and they're all laughing.
03:33And I just thought, that feels like the kind of dumb thing Ru would do.
03:38And so from that moment, we, we sort of, I just had it in my head and I couldn't get
03:44it
03:44out.
03:45And so I, I rewrote the sequence and, and put it into the script.
03:50And we worked with, you know, our, our production designer who was able to build, I, first, I
03:55wanted to use the real Mexican U.S. border and try to drive a car over it, but there were
04:01some issues.
04:03So we had to build our own.
04:05Um, so we built about 150 feet of it out in the Mojave desert.
04:11And, uh, and then, you know, we worked with special effects, came up with this great rig
04:16where, you know, the car could be on it and it can tilt this way and that way.
04:20Cause I wanted there to be a certain sort of tension.
04:23I, I almost thought of it like that great sequence in Jurassic Park where the car is
04:28stuck in the tree.
04:29You know, how could we, you know, how could we do something that had, that wasn't just
04:34a gag, but, but really was, was sort of telling a story through the, you know, how does she
04:40get, how does she get off of this, this wall now that she's on it?
04:44And so, um, you know, so we, you know, it took us, you know, we, we planned it for a
04:49very,
04:50you know, maybe about six months and it was, uh, you know, logistically very hard cause you're
04:55dealing with sometimes the winds get up to 40, 50 miles an hour.
05:00And then we also had to sort of plan according to the sun and where the light was.
05:04So, you know, we had it all, you know, storyboarded, which gave us a good sense of, of what we
05:10wanted.
05:10And then it was just about, thank God Zendaya does Spider-Man and is used to, you know,
05:16being up on, on ledges, um, because it's, I, I mean, I couldn't go up there.
05:23I'd be terrified.
05:24Um, but, uh, yeah, and we ended up sort of pulling it off in about two days in the, uh,
05:29in the Mojave, but it's a, it's a sequence I'm really proud of.
05:32And I think also just speaks to the larger themes of, of this season, you know, in terms
05:39of, of, of not just drugs and, you know, the fentanyl crisis and, you know, the amount
05:47of people we're losing to it, but also Rue's life where she's kind of teetering on the edge
05:53and, um, and it can go either way.
05:56Um, you know, she could, she could figure everything out and live a happy life or she
06:02could, you know, fall back and, you know, and it's over.
06:06And it just felt like, uh, uh, a kind of a, a great image to, to sort of kick off
06:12this
06:12new, uh, direction of this season.
06:15And, you know, the only, the only other thing is once she had walked away, cause I think it
06:20was the first day we were shooting, you know, she starts to walk away and I'm going, but
06:24what's the button of the scene?
06:27There's gotta happen.
06:28We need a button in some way.
06:29We can't just leave it there.
06:32And, you know, and I'm thinking, well, can we just drop the car?
06:35And they're going, no, no, no.
06:36I mean, that's, you can't just drop a car.
06:38It's going to cost this.
06:39And it was all, you know, everything, you know, became this big sort of financial, um,
06:45thing.
06:45And so I thought, well, can we get just like a hawk who could fly into frame, land on the
06:50car, it tilts back and then flies away.
06:54And they're going, Sam, you know, a hawk is not going to do that.
06:57You know, you can't train a hawk to do that in eight hours.
07:01And I'm going, but maybe we've got like, you know, the Denzel Washington.
07:05Washington of hawks.
07:07Maybe it's just, he's going to show up and just knock it out of the park on the first
07:11take.
07:12They're going, no way.
07:13You know, so we, you know, we find this hawk who's supposedly a great hawk.
07:17And, you know, we're there.
07:20And suddenly the wind starts kicking up and now the wind, it's 30 miles an hour.
07:24And they're going, uh, he's not going to fly against the current, you know, the wind.
07:29It's, it's, this is very unlikely.
07:31I'm just sitting there going, please God, let this hawk land on this car.
07:35And this is the beauty of filmmaking is sometimes everything just goes right.
07:42And the hawk flew right in, landed special effects, hit the little hydraulic thing and
07:50it tilted back.
07:50And I get chills thinking about it because, you know, there's, there's, there's only,
07:56only so much you can plan for on, on a set.
07:59And, you know, you can, you know, and most of the time everything's going wrong.
08:05And so those moments when it just all goes right and, uh, it's just beautiful.
08:13And I remember the whole crew just clapping and cheering for this hawk, you know, so it
08:18was, you can't plan for finding the Denzel Washington of Hawks, but you, you did, you
08:22did, um, mentioning just being in the Mojave.
08:26I mean, in general, the world of the show feels so much bigger this season.
08:30Uh, literally like you shot at many more locations than you got to for the first two
08:34seasons.
08:34And I think that speaks to the, you know, scope of ambition for this season, the, the
08:39knowledge that these are not kids anymore.
08:41This is now a show about adults.
08:43Um, so talk about kind of how you wanted to expand the world.
08:46What excited you most, where you wanted to go?
08:50I mean, you know, look, I, I was never particularly interested in, in, in the world of high school.
08:58I was interested in kind of the emotional state of, of being young and, and
09:04struggling with, you know, addiction and, and depression and relationships and, you
09:10know, that's up, but, but high school itself is not something I have a ton of
09:13experience with because Izzy cover your ears, but I dropped out of high school in
09:19ninth grade and gotten a lot of trouble for a couple of years and then finally got
09:25my life together.
09:26But I, so in, in, you know, I met, we used to get notes from HBO the first, you know,
09:32season going, shouldn't they be doing more homework?
09:38So I just thought if I'm going to come back and, and we're going to get everyone together,
09:43it, you know, I, I'd like to explore kind of what if, what it feels like the, the, the
09:48wild west of adulthood, especially right now.
09:52And I think post COVID because, you know, COVID started all of these new businesses in
10:02a way, you know, streaming became, you know, an extremely lucrative, you know, business,
10:10you know, only fans, you know, drugs exploded.
10:14And, you know, this idea of what are these kind of subcultures that these characters can
10:21sort of brush up against and they, and, and I think as an audience, we know that they
10:27no longer have the safety net of being able to go home to their parents' house.
10:33You know, it's, it's the real world.
10:37There are consequences to your actions.
10:40And I think, you know, just looking at it in terms of a three act structure of, you
10:46know, and also that three act structure, I link a little bit to AA, you know, it's the
10:52first seasons, you know, we discovered we're, we're powerless, you know, for our addiction.
10:57The second season is came to believe that, you know, a power greater than ourselves could
11:01restore us to sanity.
11:02And this third season, you know, is about, you know, surrendering, you know, one's will
11:08to God or however we understand God.
11:12And I, I like that idea of, of it's, you're at the, you're at the mercy at times of something
11:21greater than yourself.
11:22But there's also that, that belief in something greater than yourself, which I think is a very
11:29big theme, the religious sort of themes of this season, um, kind of forces particularly
11:37young people to get outside of the kind of selfish aspects of, of social media, the, you
11:46know, the envy, the jealousy, the kind of, you know, persona versus who you are.
11:54It, it, it allows, it allows for, for one to go, wow, I'm, I'm alive.
12:01I'm living in America.
12:03You know, it's, it's not the dark ages.
12:08You know, we have penicillin.
12:12There's some really wonderful aspects to being alive right now.
12:17And, and so I think that's what I, you know, I wanted, I wanted to escape the kind of the
12:24internal, and I don't want to say narcissistic, because I don't think of all the characters
12:28as narcissistic, but they're all fairly selfish.
12:31I mean, I think they're all very selfish, but, um, I wanted to kind of escape that, the
12:38self and, and, and get into something a little bit wider and broader, um, and, and sort of see
12:45how they function in the world and, and, and what the consequences are to their, their
12:50actions, because it doesn't matter if you think you're a good person, if you're not
12:54doing good things, then you might be kind of a bad person, um, and, uh, and there's going
13:05to be consequences to it.
13:07Yeah.
13:07On a technical side, I wonder how, let's just say that Kodak introduced a new film stock for
13:15this season of Euphoria, which is very cool.
13:17You can see even just the colors in that scene, or the clip we're going to play a little bit
13:20later, are so specific and vivid, um, how something like that kind of works toward what
13:26you're talking about, how the, the visual evolution of the show is able to go hand in
13:30hand with that.
13:30Well, you know, I've worked with the same cinematographer for almost a decade now, Marcel
13:35Rev, who's really, uh, brilliant.
13:39And we did the first season together, which was, which was digital.
13:43Um, and then, you know, because of COVID, um, we, and these sort of these, we did these,
13:51um, kind of bridge episodes.
13:53We did a diner episode where we shot for, you know, three days and it was just a conversation
13:57in a diner.
13:58Um, and I was able to, to allow, to get, uh, HBO to allow us to, to use film because
14:05I
14:05said we wouldn't be using any haze if we shot on film.
14:08Haze at the time was controversial because of COVID and the particles or whatever.
14:13It's a blessing.
14:14And, um, but so season two, when we went into it, we, we wanted to kind of change the, the
14:22color of it.
14:22We wanted to get away from, uh, some of the kind of punchier, you know, purples and
14:29pinks that we were using season one and go into something that had a little bit more of
14:33a, like man golden feel, um, something that was a little more faded and felt like a memory
14:39of sorts.
14:40So we reached out to Kodak about, uh, Ektachrome, um, cause we thought that there was something
14:47about the saturation of it that could, that could really, uh, be work for the season.
14:52And I remember at the time they said, you know, look, we, you know, we don't do Ektachrome
14:57for a 35 millimeter.
14:58And I, and I said, but you do make it, you know, um, you know, you, you do make it
15:03for
15:0316.
15:04And they said, they said, yeah, you know, we do, but it not 35 cause no one shoots on
15:09it.
15:10And I said, I said, well, we'd really like to order some.
15:12They said, we, I'm sorry, we can't do it.
15:14And I said, well, what if we order a million feet?
15:18And they went, we might be able to work something out.
15:21Um, and so we developed this great relationship with Kodak and, um, and loved shooting on
15:28Ektachrome, although it was very difficult, but I think worth it.
15:32Um, and, and I'm really proud of it.
15:34But for season three, I think, you know, we wanted to, I don't know, I just, I kept watching
15:41movies like North by Northwest and just going, why can't with all of modern technology, why
15:50can't we have colors like this?
15:52Um, and, and because I knew I wanted it to be, I wanted to shoot more practical locations
15:58and move away from stage builds that I wanted to, I wanted to do a portrait of California
16:04and not just, you know, LA, but Lancaster and pear blossom and long beach and the Mojave
16:10and, um, even down into, you know, Mexicali and on the border.
16:15And it just felt like it would, you know, I, I wanted the kind of scope and also the, the
16:22romanticism of, of kind of old school technicolor and to get, to get something that felt is sort
16:29of saturated and punchy as possible.
16:32And so we, we reached out to, to Kodak and they, they let us, you know, test a bunch of
16:37different stocks that they had for still photography.
16:40And, um, and so we, we tested a few different ones and, and we, um, and we landed on, um,
16:47on
16:47this stock, which they just retitled.
16:49I don't remember the, the new name of it now.
16:52Cause we, we had another name, we would call it the paladin stock on set, um, based after
16:58Lori's parrot and have gun will travel.
17:01But, um, uh, so, and, you know, so we, we, Marcel worked with them very closely and, and
17:07then at the same time we talked to HBO about, you know, could we use a 65 millimeter camera,
17:14you know, for some of our wide shots.
17:18And actually it was a bit of a struggle, but they finally said, okay, well, why don't you
17:22test it?
17:22And so we tested it and, you know, we ended up carrying, uh, you know, some seven 65 bodies
17:29on set, you know, so occasionally, you know, the first couple of days we do a wide shot
17:33on it, we moved to 35 and then it just looked so good that Marcel and I would go, well,
17:39what
17:40happens if we push the camera from the wide shot into a closeup on 65?
17:45And so we just started to sneak it in a little bit more and more throughout the process.
17:50And, and I think HBO was so happy with the look of it and the scope of it that we
17:57kind
17:57of got away with it.
17:58Um, but, uh, you know, I don't know, our dream was to, to kind of premiere the episodes in
18:04theaters week to week, um, which didn't happen, but, uh, but it's hopefully someday, you know,
18:12it can be sort of experienced on a big screen.
18:15And, um, we, I don't know, it just, I really wanted to tell an epic tale about young adulthood
18:21and what it means to be kind of alive right now.
18:26We were talking backstage and when you, when that scene starts, and I imagine on the page,
18:32it's, it's a spectacular, quite scary, dangerous scene.
18:35And, and suddenly you realize the incredible comedy that's coming through Sidney's performance
18:39and the way you film it.
18:41Um, how does that take place?
18:44How do you find that tone?
18:46Um, well, it's interesting because on the page I had written it as, you know, they come home
18:50from their wedding night, he's indebted to these sort of Armenian loan sharks and they
18:58just, you know, beat the crap out of them.
19:00And initially Cassie, you know, got thrown to the ground, gets up, jumps on the guy's back,
19:06is trying to bite them.
19:07And they're spinning around, punching, kicking, and it's, you know, goes on and on.
19:11And so that's what I had written in the script, you know, and so in, in, in preparation for
19:16it, you know, we brought in, you know, these different fight choreographers and they're
19:21doing Kung Fu on the steps and throwing Nate over the balcony.
19:25And, you know, and I kept going, well, I don't know if that's it, you know, but maybe it's,
19:29you know, maybe there's something here.
19:30And so we kept changing the choreography of the fight and we ended up landing on something
19:36that felt good.
19:38And, you know, so we go to shoot at the first night and we get to basically the, the moment
19:44when, you know, punches him in the stomach, throws him against the wall.
19:48Cassie's hits her head on the ground and he punches him, blood goes in and he sinks down
19:53to the ground.
19:54We call it for the night.
19:55We're coming back and we're going to finish the rest of the scene, you know, the next day.
19:58And I go back to the, the, the hotel room we're staying in Long Beach.
20:03And I kept saying to Ash, who's my wife and producing partner, I said, ah, something just
20:08doesn't feel right.
20:10You know, something outside of the language of the film, of, of the show, you know, this
20:14sort of, is it just an action sequence, you know?
20:18And I, it kept me up, you know, all night and I'm thinking about it and, you know, we get
20:24to set the next day and I'm going, it's just, I don't know where we're not making
20:28John Wick.
20:29I love John Wick, but we're not, we're not making it, you know, it's, it, it, we have
20:34to somehow focus or hone in on the, on the, on the characters.
20:37It has to be about the characters.
20:40And, you know, so it, it kind of occurred to me, you know, at, you know, at the moment,
20:46well, what if it's just Cassie bangs her head and her nose and suddenly it's this little
20:53bit of blood, it's just so horrifying and, and she starts, she just starts crying and
21:00we keep all of the choreography we've done, but it's all in the background out of focus.
21:05So, so that we're really able to kind of dig deeper into, into who this character is.
21:11She's, she's, you know, someone who's, you know, so self-absorbed that her husband could
21:18literally be getting pummeled to death behind her.
21:22And, you know, Sydney is just such a wonderful collaborator.
21:32I, I really kind of cherish our, our, our relationship because, you know, I'm saying
21:37this, that Sydney, Sydney shows up, she's great.
21:41Take one.
21:42She's great.
21:43Take two.
21:44She's even better.
21:47Take three.
21:48But what's interesting is she just, if, if, if you just kind of push it a little bit,
21:54she gets, she becomes brilliant.
21:57You know, you just do a few more takes and she can reach these levels that are, are very
22:03honest emotionally, but also deeply funny.
22:08And, um, and so, you know, knowing that, you know, she's able to anchor the scene, um, you
22:16know, with this kind of madness and chaos going on around her, um, it's just, is, is a, is
22:23a, is a, is a director because, you know, it, you know, it, it would be a very different
22:29scene if, if I said, well, we don't want to do the John Wick thing, but, you know, she,
22:33you know, an actor isn't able to pull it off.
22:35She can, she can really root it in.
22:38And, um, and I just, I, I love, I just, and Jacob is just fantastic.
22:45And, you know, it's also, I, I kept thinking, I just thought it was really funny because
22:49Jacob's so tall.
22:50He's six five.
22:51I just kept saying, what if, but what if the guy who shows up is even taller?
22:56And, you know, um, and so just seeing this, this man who's even bigger than him pummeling
23:03him, just, it just kills me.
23:05I, um, but, um, so we went and just, we, we sort of centered it on her.
23:10And then finally, I think when the toe gets cut off, that's when it dawns on Cassie's character,
23:16I think how real and dangerous this, this situation is.
23:21It's the thing that sort of snaps her out of her, her own self-absorption.
23:25But, um, but yeah, I mean, that's the sort of beauty of, of, of, it's why I love directing
23:31is these are things that you can't just discover on, on the page.
23:35You have to be there in the environment and constructing the shots and because it, you know,
23:44what the rhythm is.
23:45There's a rhythm to, to, to making, you know, to making a show or a film that you, you, you
23:52just start to, you feel it inside.
23:54And so even if you don't know on an intellectual level that, you know, what it is that you're
24:00searching for, you, you know, that there's something else, there's some bit of magic you
24:07might be missing.
24:08And I think that's, you know, I always say to Ash, you know, if I, you know, on set,
24:15if I ever get confident and I feel like everything is going great, tell me I'm missing something.
24:22Um, you know, it's, uh, it's, you know, you want to make sure you're open to, to life and
24:28these things that, that sort of spill in.
24:30So I'm always going, but could it be better?
24:32Could it be better?
24:34Um, and, uh, and I think that's, it's just sort of a perfect example of, of, um, of just
24:40of why, why being on set is just, just means everything at the end of the day, you know?
24:48So, yeah, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying I can't wait to see where we go in the rest
24:53of the episode, Sam.
24:54Thank you so much.
24:55Appreciate it.
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