Zendaya had a “very emotional reaction” to learning that her Euphoria character Lou Bennett would die in the Season 3 finale.
Creator Sam Levinson said Wednesday on Variety’s “Half Hour With” series that he and Zendaya had a “tough” conversation when he suggested the ending of Rue’s story to her.
“We love the character of Lou,” Levinson said, praising the two-time Emmy Award winner for doing “an amazing job bringing this character to life.”
He called Zendaya, 29, a “talented actor” and said Rue “couldn’t be more charming, endearing and humorous” if played by someone else.
“So, it was a tough discussion,” the showrunner recalled. “Even during filming, it was a burden for both of us. At the end of the day, she understood what I was doing.”
During the season 3 finale, Lou accidentally suffers an overdose after taking fentanyl-laced pills given to him by crime lord Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).
Levinson confirmed that Lou’s death was meant to honor her late co-star Angus Cloud, who died at age 25 from an accidental fentanyl overdose in July 2023.
Of Cloud, Levinson said, “He was someone we loved dearly, rooting for dearly, and seeing the best in him.”
Television producers also praised the performance of Colman Domingo, who played Lou’s mentor Ali Muhammad, who discovers her body.
“When it came time to shoot the scene, Colman Domingo was also on set. He has been one of my closest collaborators for over 10 years and a fundamental force in Zendaya’s life,” Levinson explained.
“That kind of camaraderie made this sequence feel authentic and meaningful,” he continued. “We’ve been doing this together for eight or nine years, so the few days we were shooting that scene were amazing because I think we knew how the audience would react.”
Levinson previously defended his decision to kill Lou, a decision that shocked and angered some viewers of the HBO show.
“People like Lou don’t make it,” he said in an interview with HBO after the final episode.
“People relapse. They get confused. They’re not ready to get clean,” he continued. “There’s no reason to bring it to the surface. I wanted to tell this story for Angus and for those who weren’t given a second chance.”
Zendaya has not publicly responded to Ru’s death.
However, her mother Claire Stormer spoke out about the show’s ending in a cryptic post on Instagram the day after the final episode.
“I’ve been getting a lot of messages in my DMs about last night’s episode,” she began her message. “I keep my thoughts to myself.”
Stormer added, “It certainly made me sad…and other emotions as well. But I’m going to leave it at that…”
Nate Jacobs, played by Jacob Elordi, was also killed off in the HBO series, which similarly upset fans.
In one of his post-finale interviews, Levinson confirmed that season 3 would be the show’s last.
“I feel like this is the end for me in terms of the story we were trying to tell, the story about addiction and its effects,” he said.
