Zendaya had “a very emotional reaction” to learning her “Euphoria” character, Rue Bennett, would die in the Season 3 finale.
Creator Sam Levinson shared on Variety’s “Half Hour With” series Wednesday that he and Zendaya had a “tough” conversation when he pitched her the ending to Rue’s story.
“We love the character Rue,” Levinson said, praising the two-time Emmy Award winner for doing “such an incredible job bringing this character to life.”
He called Zendaya, 29, “a gifted actor” and said Rue “wouldn’t be as charming and lovable and humorous” if she was played by someone else.
“So it was a tough discussion,” the showrunner recalled. “Even through shooting, it sort of weighed on both of us. At the end of the day, she understood what I was doing.”
During the Season 3 finale, Rue suffered an accidental overdose after she took fentanyl-laced pills given to her by crime lord Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).
Levinson confirmed the manner of Rue’s death was to honor late co-star Angus Cloud, who died from an accidental fentanyl overdose in July 2023 at the age of 25.
Cloud, Levinson said, “was someone whom we loved dearly and really rooted for and saw the best in.”
The TV producer also shouted out Colman Domingo’s performance as Rue’s mentor, Ali Muhammad, who finds her dead body.
“When when it came time to shoot the scene, we also had Colman Domingo there, who’s been one of my closest collaborators for over a decade and a grounding force in Zendaya’s life as well,” Levinson explained.
“That kind of camaraderie really helped this sequence feel authentic and meaningful,” he continued. “We’ve been doing this for eight, nine years together, so it was a beautiful couple of days as we were shooting those scenes, because I think we knew how audiences would respond to it.”
Levinson previously defended the decision to kill off Rue, which shocked and angered some of the HBO show’s audience.
“People like Rue don’t make it,” he said in a post-finale HBO interview.
“People relapse. They f–k up. They’re not ready to get clean,” he continued. “There’s no reason to sugarcoat it. I wanted to tell this story for Angus and for people who weren’t granted a second chance.”
Zendaya has not publicly reacted to Rue’s death.
But her mom, Claire Stoermer, weighed in on the show’s ending the day after the finale with a cryptic post on Instagram.
“Lots of messages in my DM’s from people about last night’s episode,” she began her message. “I’m gonna keep my thoughts to myself.”
Stoermer added, “Definitely made me sad….and other emotions as well. But just gonna leave it right there…”
The HBO series also killed off Jacob Elordi’s character, Nate Jacobs, which similarly upset fans.
In one of his post-finale interviews, Levinson confirmed Season 3 is the show’s last.
“In terms of the story that we set out to tell, which is the story about addiction and its consequences,” he stated, “this feels like the end to me.”
