Megyn Kelly condemned Sydney Sweeney and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson over a controversial scene from the hit HBO drama.
A teaser for the show’s third season quickly went viral, offering a glimpse of the new storyline featuring Sweeney’s character as an influencer and adult content creator.
In the clip, the actress was dressed as a baby, wearing two curly pigtails with a pacifier in her mouth and her legs spread apart.
Image credits: Youtube/Megyn Kelly
“I can’t believe she agreed to this frankly and was in this,” Kelly said on Tuesday (April 14) on her Megyn Kelly Show.
She called the scene “sick” and accused the actress and Levinson of “s*xualizing infancy.”
“I think this guy’s sick … Sam Levinson,” she said.
Image credits: sydney_sweeney
Kelly mentioned interviews in which Sweeney and other Euphoria actors expressed discomfort with the number of explicit scenes in the show.
“He constantly wants the women to take their clothes off for, like, scenes that don’t require them to be n*de at all,” Kelly said.
The former Fox News host noted that questionable scenes like Sweeney’s are becoming increasingly common in Hollywood.
Image credits: HBO
“I think this is another example of Hollywood not understanding at all where the line is. And how most normal people are going to recoil … in response to what’s essentially the s*xualization of a child, of a baby,” she said.
Kelly previously defended Sweeney amid backlash over the actress’ American Eagle ad, which included a pun on her great “jeans” and “genes.” As Sweeney is a blonde, blue-eyed woman, some people accused the company and the star of promoting eugenics.
The journalist and podcaster praised the actress for initially handling the controversy “like a boss,” though she disliked it when Sweeney directly addressed the criticism and distanced herself from the accusations.
Image credits: Youtube/Megyn Kelly
In 2022, Sweeney told The Independent that she asked to cut some of her character’s unclothed scenes from Euphoria and that Levinson had supported her decision.
“There are moments were [my character] Cassie was supposed to be shirtless and I would tell Sam, ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here,’” the 28-year-old explained. “He was like, ‘OK, we don’t need it.’
“I’ve never felt like Sam has pushed it on me or was trying to get a n*de scene into an HBO show. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me.”
Image credits: HBO
The Euphoria set reportedly has an intimacy coordinator to ensure no lines are crossed.
Similarly, Minka Kelly, another actress from the HBO show, shared that she asked Levinson to rewrite a scene in which her dress fell to the ground because she didn’t feel comfortable stripping down on her first day on set.
“I said, ‘I’d love to do this scene, but I think we can keep my dress on.’ He was like, ‘OK!’ He didn’t even hesitate. And he shot a beautiful scene and got exactly what he wanted.”
Image credits: Youtube/Megyn Kelly
Image credits: Getty/Rodin Eckenroth
Sweeney also told The Independent that there’s “a stigma against actresses who get n*ked on screen.”
“When a guy has a s*x scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise,” she said. “But the moment a girl does it, it’s completely different.”
The show, which also stars Zendaya and Jacob Elordi, returned on Sunday (April 12) for its highly-anticipated third season.
Only the first episode is available so far, in which Sweeney’s character Cassie is seen persuading fiancé Nate (Elordi) to allow her to post videos online to pay for their wedding.
Season three, which arrived four years after the last, has so far received negative reviews. The Guardian‘s Hannah J Davies’ said the way Euphoria handles Cassie’s cam girl storyline “feels bafflingly dated.”
The Telegraph‘s Eleanor Halls gave the show two stars, writing that it “increasingly feels like the misogynistic fantasies of a creepy old man.”
Image credits: HBO
The short snippet of Cassie in a suggestive pose wearing baby clothes was enough to deter many people from watching the show.
“This isn’t character development, this is f*tish content. Disgusting,” wrote one user on social media, while another said, “This is just disturbing.”
Image credits: HBO
Image credits: HBO
Discussing Cassie’s storyline, Levinson defended her scenes as intentionally absurd, particularly one scene of her dressed in a racy dog costume.
Speaking with The New York Times, the 41-year-old writer and creator said the plot was intended to highlight Cassie’s need for validation.
Image credits: HBO
“Before I wrote this season, she called me and she said, ‘Just do me one favor: Make sure Cassie’s crazy,’” Levinson shared.
“You don’t often see a girl that beautiful be that desperate and I think it’s that combination of her desperation and need for validation that makes the character so brilliant.”
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