What’s Ailing ‘Euphoria’? Tragedy and Trauma Inside TV’s Buzziest Show

On a sunny day final November, the grief-stricken household and pals of producer Kevin Turen gathered on the Forest Garden cemetery in Glendale, then made their strategy to a reception on the Warner Bros. lot. At simply 44 years previous, Turen had been driving along with his 10-year-old son within the automobile when he abruptly slumped over, having suffered a cardiac occasion. His son managed to cease the automobile and name for assist.

A real cineaste with a zest for all times and an extended checklist of unbiased movie credit (Arbitrage, The Start of a Nation, Items of a Lady), Turen was beloved by many. Among the many mourners that day had been Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and Zac Efron. Zendaya, the star of the largest success of Turen’s profession — the culture-rattling HBO collection Euphoria — missed the funeral however attended the reception.

Absent from the gathering altogether was Sam Levinson, the temperamental author and director behind Euphoria and the ill-fated collection The Idol, which was supposed to launch The Weeknd’s appearing profession. Levinson not solely had been Turen’s very shut good friend but in addition his accomplice of their Little Lamb Manufacturing firm — till Levinson shocked many who knew each males by chopping ties with Turen earlier within the yr. The explanations had been mysterious to all however a handful of shut associates.

The Turen household had made it clear that Sam and his spouse, Ashley, weren’t welcome on the funeral. Within the months earlier than his demise, Kevin had misplaced not solely his partnership along with his shut good friend however his profitable deal at HBO as effectively. (Regardless of the breakup, Levinson helped him get a good settlement, a educated supply says.) Associates say Turen continuously felt beneath appreciable monetary stress. He labored nonstop and uncared for his well being, however a few of his family members thought the breakup had put Kevin beneath “inordinate” extra stress for a number of months, “which took its toll,” as one supply places it. (A24 and Levinson’s agent and Turen’s shut good friend, WME agent Andrew Finkelstein, paid for the burial plot, and HBO paid for the reception. In honor of Turen’s love of sushi, the occasion — attended by a number of hundred friends — was catered by Katsuya.)

The companions had been a examine in contrasts. An individual near each males remembers Turen as “a gregarious, outgoing man who liked to eat, liked to have enjoyable, wasn’t abusive, wasn’t a yeller,” whereas Levinson is “an enormous, profitable, aloof, considerably narcissistic artist.” He provides, “Folks resent Sam for plenty of causes, and no person resented Kevin.”

A little bit of hyperbole, maybe, however definitely Turen was extra in style than his accomplice. Whereas Levinson could possibly be beneficiant and type, he additionally had an inclination to turn into overwhelmed and offended. “Sam was so nerve-racking to everybody round him. He’s an individual who must be dealt with,” says a supply who labored on a Levinson-Turen manufacturing. His obsessiveness meant he has “no off button. He would shoot all night time, if he may. He all the time needs to push boundaries and shock folks just a little bit. He wants somebody to curate his ideas and concepts.”

Levinson’s relationship with Turen wasn’t the one one which had frayed. Zendaya, as soon as such a detailed Levinson acolyte that she steadily frolicked at his home, had cooled towards the mercurial filmmaker. One other insider says that as she pulled away, Levinson started to resent her. After which there was the problem of Levinson’s spouse, Ashley, who has taken on Turen’s duties however who brings a extra aggressive character to the work. Levinson, Ashley and Zendaya all declined to remark for this story.

In the meantime, Euphoria followers eagerly awaited a 3rd season, or perhaps a low-bar announcement that one can be coming. The final episode aired method again in February 2022, and the supposedly excessive school-age stars had been solely getting older and breaking into success within the films. The delay had been such that HBO had allowed the highest stars to ebook different tasks whereas awaiting an appropriate concept for an additional season. Lastly, after months of hypothesis about whether or not there would ever be a season three, HBO introduced July 12 that key castmembers had signed on to return, aiming for a January begin date.

However given the large personalities concerned, and the chaos that appears to swirl round Levinson, merely signing up the expertise (who already had contracts that needed to be tweaked in mild of their successes) doesn’t imply executives at HBO can chill out. It falls to chief Casey Bloys and head of drama Francesca Orsi to drag this vexing third season of Euphoria collectively … and maintain it collectively. It is likely to be the final word government problem: persuading numerous troublesome skills to row in the identical path after there have been actual or perceived betrayals of belief. And there was tragedy — the actual type, involving not one however two premature deaths.

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In the course of the first two seasons of Euphoria, Zendaya and Levinson “had been thick as thieves,” says a supply concerned with the manufacturing. “She discovered him to be an inspiring director and he or she knew she was embodying him” in her position as drug addict Rue. (Levinson had gone to rehab at 19 to get off opiates and methamphetamines.) Having received two Emmys for her efficiency, she had shadowed Levinson on set throughout season two with an eye fixed towards directing in season three. The pair had been shut sufficient that they collaborated on — and largely self-financed — an indie film, Malcolm & Marie, through the pandemic.

Enter The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye. Turen initially related with him by producer Aaron Gilbert, then operating Bron, the place Turen had a movie deal. Sources say each Turen and Levinson turned enamored of the multiplatinum pop star, who harbored severe appearing ambitions. Turen and Levinson jumped in to supply Tesfaye’s high-profile appearing debut, The Idol, additionally for HBO. Levinson wrote a spec script for the pilot however was not speculated to spend an excessive amount of time on the challenge as a result of he was nonetheless occupied with Euphoria‘s season two; different writers and administrators would deal with the heavy lifting. However with Levinson, issues usually don’t go as deliberate.

Ultimately, as Levinson wound up spending much more time on The Idol than anticipated, Zendaya’s frustration grew. Levinson had not but delivered scripts for Euphoria‘s third season — scripts which are nonetheless a piece in progress greater than two years after viewers watched the final episode of season two. Zendaya was so perturbed that she requested for a gathering with HBO’s Bloys and Orsi, demanding to know why the community allowed Levinson to show his consideration to a different present — an HBO present, no much less — with Euphoria hanging within the steadiness.

Sources say her unhappiness deepened in March 2023, after Rolling Stone printed a blistering article alleging that with Levinson on the helm, manufacturing on The Idol had gone “disgustingly, disturbingly off the rails” — chaotic and overbudget, with a poisonous work atmosphere. The present instructed the story of a fading pop star, performed by Lily-Rose Depp, who turns into ensnared in a masochistic relationship with cult chief Tedros, performed by The Weeknd. In line with Rolling Stone, crewmembers had been calling the collection “sexual torture porn” that includes the “rape fantasy” of a “poisonous man.”

Zendaya had nothing to do with The Idol however was swept up in fan backlash for a challenge she hadn’t wished Levinson to tackle within the first place. Sources word that she was already a seasoned actress when she appeared in Euphoria at 22, and he or she intently tracks the temper on social media. “Her picture is pristine,” says an government who has dealt together with her. “And followers had been turning towards Sam,” urging Zendaya to distance herself.

Months later, with the connection having curdled, there was one other assembly at HBO with Zendaya, Levinson, Bloys and Orsi, ostensibly to debate inventive points. However HBO execs who hoped the gathering would assist convey a few reconciliation between director and star wound up dissatisfied. “They went from being so shut, they usually couldn’t repair it,” says a supply concerned with the present.

One other problem arose: Zendaya has instructed HBO executives that she doesn’t need Ashley Levinson to be the one government producer on season three. With Turen gone, Zendaya shouldn’t be the one individual concerned with the present to really feel that method. Sources say Ashley is a really completely different proposition from Turen — extra sharp-elbowed than conciliatory and, above all, fiercely protecting of her husband.

“Sam wants anyone else beside Ashley,” says a expertise rep with a shopper within the present. “He wants a voice of cause, and Kevin was a genius at that.” An insider provides: “Sam actually is an enormous expertise, however he wants managing, and if you happen to’re a partner, it’s powerful. He wants boundaries, he wants deadlines. It’s arduous for a partner to set limits. You’re setting your self up for failure.”

After all, with many gamers concerned, there may be multiple tackle what has gone awry with Euphoria. A supply near Levinson blamed Zendaya for dragging her ft with an eye fixed towards a burgeoning movie profession that may quickly embody not solely the studio franchises Spider-Man and Dune, however Luca Guadagnino’s Cannes entry Challengers. “It was all about her,” says one supply. “All people wished to make it about Sam, but it surely was her.”

Sources say a minimum of one among Zendaya’s co-stars — Sydney Sweeney — was desperate to return, particularly with Levinson on the helm. Although the delays have precipitated her to overlook out on some massive paydays, a supply in her camp says pointedly: “She’s wanting ahead to going again to Sam Levinson’s Euphoria. She feels very strongly about Sam and his work.” Jacob Elordi, the opposite co-star with probably the most traction in films, has been “aloof” and ambivalent about returning, says a supply, however now he has re-upped. Elordi’s reps didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Levinson’s first crack at an concept for the brand new season, during which Zendaya was to be a non-public detective, was rejected by each HBO and Zendaya. Zendaya’s concept that she may play a surrogate mom additionally was a nonstarter. However HBO sources say that there’s lastly the start of a thaw between writer-director and star, and an inkling of an concept that may work. “Good luck to us,” says one individual intently concerned within the present. “Who is aware of what the hell will occur.”

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In Might 2023, Levinson and the celebs of The Idol traveled to France for the present’s premiere on the Cannes Movie Pageant. By then, Levinson’s break up with Turen was a achieved deal, and Turen was not invited to attend though he had introduced the challenge to Levinson and was an government producer on the collection.

At that time, “Sam was on prime of the world,” says one affiliate. “He bought every little thing he wished. His ego was unstoppable.” At a press convention the day after the present’s premiere — and an afterparty that raged till 5 a.m. — Levinson sat on a panel with members of his solid.

Naturally there have been questions in regards to the Rolling Stone article. Depp answered briefly that the piece “was not reflective in any respect of my expertise capturing the present.” And Levinson stated the allegations had been “fully international to me,” including that when his spouse learn it to him, “I checked out her and I stated, ‘I believe we’re about to have the largest present of the summer season.’ “

The Idol was not the hit of the summer season. It was a really public and costly misfire, savaged by critics and the general public alike, now sitting at a dismal 19 % on Rotten Tomatoes.

From Levinson’s perspective, this failure was a part of a yr that had been in some ways troublesome and even tragic. There was, in fact, the fixed drumbeat of dangerous press. Then got here the break up with Turen, adopted by the failure of The Idol. And final July introduced a crushing blow: the demise of Angus Cloud, who performed the drug vendor Fezco on Euphoria.

Levinson had tried his finest to assist the 25-year-old actor get off medicine — there have been interventions, and HBO paid to ship him to rehab. Nonetheless, Cloud’s mom discovered him in his childhood room, lifeless from a staggering cocktail of methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl and benzodiazepines. “He was too particular, too gifted and method too younger to go away us so quickly,” Levinson stated in an announcement on the time. “I hope he knew what number of hearts he touched. I liked him. I all the time will.”

A couple of months later got here Turen’s surprising demise. (Turen additionally was shut pals with Jay Penske, CEO of The Hollywood Reporter‘s mum or dad firm, PMC. Penske declined to take part on this story.) The Sam-Kevin break up had come as a shock to many who knew how shut their relationship had been — and the way Turen was all the time, even when on trip, at Levinson’s beck and name.

Journalist and screenwriter Nick Bilton, who shadowed Levinson on season two of Euphoria and was a author on The Idol, remembers the interaction whereas engaged on the present. Turen was breaking story, he says, and inspiring the workforce to maintain at their work.

“Kevin had this joke, he was all the time saying in a humorous accent, ‘You’re being inventive! Artistic!’ Sam is — I’ve by no means seen anybody write as quick. It’s mind-boggling. He doesn’t simply write, he truly turns into the character. Sam does the voice, typically he wears the garments.” Levinson as soon as wore a costume whereas engaged on Euphoria, and, Bilton says, “On Idol, he was carrying one of many shirts that Abel’s character was going to put on. He placed on the sun shades. It’s virtually like Methodology directing.”

However a number of sources say that even with Turen within the image, Levinson, as a sober addict, was nonetheless obsessive and arduous to regulate — firing out concepts, writing and rewriting at lightning pace, eager to shoot for hours on finish and lacking price range and schedule targets. Levinson’s method has led to repeated modifications in personnel, beginning with the primary season of Euphoria. As Levinson was nonetheless a comparatively inexperienced director on the time, says a studio supply, “the [initial] concept was to have a number of administrators and writers. However he operates the best way he operates.” The plan modified.

In a September 2023 interview with the Hungarian outlet Punkt, Canadian photographer and artist Petra Collins alleged that Levinson had known as her to say he had written a present impressed by her work and requested her to come back and direct. Collins stated within the interview that she had spent 5 months in Los Angeles engaged on the present’s aesthetic and casting, solely to be dismissed as a result of she was “too younger” to direct. When she later noticed a billboard promoting Euphoria, she stated, she burst into tears.

“I used to be shocked,” she instructed the journal. “This was the aesthetic that I constructed all my life and now I’ve to vary it as a result of it [entered] the mainstream and it’s been taken away from me.” Levinson declined to remark, however a “supply near Levinson” instructed The Each day Beast, “As a fan of hers, he hoped there was a risk they might work collectively in that method. However not at all was something promised.”

Up subsequent was Augustine Frizzell, who was employed to direct the pilot. “Sam was over her shoulder the entire time,” a supply says, including that “the DGA got here a minimum of twice” due to his interference. Says one other insider: “Generally he was completely cool and chill, [but then] he was pacing and vaping and wringing his palms that he wasn’t the one directing the present.” Frizzell departed, and Levinson took the helm. “By season two, we realized that he was by no means going to have every other administrators” work on the present, says a studio insider. (There have been a few exceptions within the first season.) Frizzell declined to remark.

With Levinson writing and directing almost each installment, Euphoria ran late, costing a number of million greater than the deliberate $6 million per episode (although an HBO insider says that even so, the prices weren’t out of line with different reveals on the service). “Each day was a battle,” an insider says. However Euphoria was a success, and an enormous draw for the Max streamer. Season two, which drew greater than 16 million viewers per episode, was HBO’s second most-watched present on the time, after Recreation of Thrones.

Tales about what was occurring behind the cameras on Euphoria flowed, with evaluation of each plot level and each trace of dysfunction. Vulture ran a February 2022 article headlined, “A Timeline of Euphoria Obsession and Sam Levinson Hatred.” The Each day Beast ran its story laying out allegations of a poisonous set, with workdays that typically stretched from 15 to 17 hours (not extraordinary on Hollywood units). There have been experiences of actresses questioning why they needed to be within the nude for sure scenes. (Sources say these points had been labored out after they pushed again.)

“There have been in all probability reputable grievances [on Levinson’s set] as there are on any set, however there’s an agenda with Sam that I believe is fucking weird,” says Bilton. “I’ve by no means seen this type of microscope utilized to anybody else. He’s not taking sides in politics. He’s making content material that ruffles folks’s feathers.”

Some followers began criticizing Levinson on-line for having a one-man writers room that by definition lacked variety (although the present featured a really various solid). A feminine director, introduced in so as to add a lady’s perspective to the present, had been ousted. And the Vulture timeline ended ominously: “With Levinson already branded a menace to society forward of the season-two finale, probably the most obsessive viewers are questioning whether or not the director may even do his job.”

The identical sample was repeated — solely way more expensively — on The Idol. Levinson’s involvement was meant to be restricted. He had written a pilot on spec, although HBO had not anticipated that as he was nonetheless engaged on Euphoria season 2. The collection was shortly greenlighted regardless of the skepticism of a number of HBO executives. Amy Seimetz (co-creator of Starz’s The Girlfriend Expertise) was introduced in to direct all episodes, and there was a writers room overseen by Joe Epstein. However with manufacturing effectively underway, sources say, The Weeknd had soured on the work and requested Levinson to become involved. At that time, Seimetz had shot 5 and a half of six episodes. HBO tossed all the fabric that Seimetz had produced, an estimated $60 million value, and the unique workforce was sidelined. With no scripts in hand, HBO allowed The Weeknd and Levinson to give you a unique story and Levinson took the helm as author and director of the reconceived present. (The Weeknd, who didn’t reply to requests to remark for this story, later instructed Vainness Honest that Seimetz’s departure was as a result of scheduling conflicts. Seimetz declined to remark.)

A supply who labored on the sooner model says he finds it surprising how a lot latitude HBO was giving Levinson. “I do know Euphoria‘s a success, but it surely’s not Recreation of Thrones,” this individual says. When the primary Idol workforce was dropped, this individual provides, “It was simply this degree of being so simply disposed of that actually affected me.”

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Having been barred from Turen’s funeral, the Levinsons invited a rabbi to their residence and held their very own model of a memorial service with a small group that included Levinson’s agent, WME’s Finkelstein; his supervisor, Stuart Manashil; and his publicist, Alan Nierob. Each Finkelstein and Manashil had been shut pals with Turen, and the break up with Levinson precipitated them not solely skilled however nice private grief. And Turen’s sudden demise took away the likelihood that the connection can be repaired. The load of that can not be measured.

Many individuals who knew and labored with Turen and Levinson are nonetheless unclear about what lastly destroyed the partnership. One such individual says she assumed Turen had lastly walked away from the fixed calls for of catering to Levinson. However at a lunch final summer season, Turen instructed this individual that it was Levinson who had lower ties. “I stated, ‘I’m shocked. Why?’ ” this supply remembers. Turen responded, “He didn’t like that I used to be working with one other filmmaker.” He didn’t elaborate. “Kevin was reticent to ever say something destructive about anybody,” the supply says. “He was heartbroken. … He was so loyal to Sam.”

In line with a number of sources, the break up happened as a result of Turen had one other piece of enterprise with The Weeknd — a movie starring him and Wednesday star Jenna Ortega. Financed by Stay Nation, sources say, the $20 million-plus movie has been sitting in postproduction for a yr and, in line with sources, potential patrons aren’t biting. Some sources say Turen had not instructed Levinson in regards to the challenge and that Levinson felt betrayed when he discovered about it. In any case, the film was competing with The Idol — one other challenge with music, starring the identical artist.

A supply caught between the 2 males says it wasn’t so out of the atypical for Turen — a Hollywood producer, in any case — to play issues just a little quick and free, making strikes with out looping in his accomplice. “He knew he fucked up,” this individual says. “He had achieved this type of stuff earlier than, and this time it wasn’t OK.”

Turen contended that he had instructed Ashley Levinson in regards to the challenge, however she expressed no curiosity and, in line with this model of occasions, by no means talked about it to her husband. However a number of sources say Ashley denied understanding something in regards to the film. And there are nonetheless different takes on the scenario. Some sources who labored with the companions say the film wasn’t a secret in any respect. Even when it had been, “Who cares?” says a expertise rep who had a shopper within the combine. “You don’t personal Kevin. I believe Sam wished guilty somebody for the failure of The Idol.”

Many who watched the drama play out really feel that the punishment was not merited by the alleged offense, they usually consider that some form of reconciliation between the 2 companions would have come about in time. “They liked one another,” says a member of Levinson’s workforce who believes that the 2 would have reconciled finally had Turen not died. “It’s a bummer as a result of, in a method, they made one another higher. Kevin pushed Sam in the suitable path, however they weren’t Kevin’s concepts. They had been a improbable duo, and that’s what’s heartbreaking.”

This story first appeared within the July 22 problem of The Hollywood Reporter journal. This model was up to date on July 22 to incorporate new particulars in regards to the manufacturing timeline of The Idol. Click on right here to subscribe.