(Credits: HBO / YouTube Still)
Thu 9 April 2026 10:40, UK
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has opened up about his grief for Angus Cloud.
Cloud passed away in 2023 at the age of 25 from a drug overdose after playing sensitive drug dealer Fezco in the hit HBO show.
The industry and beyond mourned the young actor, whose father died of cancer shortly before his death. As a result, the Euphoria star turned to drugs while in a “grief-stricken” state, according to his mother, Lisa.
Around the time of his passing, the director recalled attempts to keep the young star clean, sharing, “I could always feel that he didn’t want [sobriety] as much as we all wanted it for him,” he explained. “That’s where it gets tricky because the whole world can want it for you. But he didn’t want it.”
In a new interview with The New York Times ahead of the third Euphoria season, Levinson added to this sentiment, sharing, “I really loved him a lot, and I fought really hard to keep him clean.”
He elaborated, “The reason I’m here today is because someone in my life gave me a second chance. I wanted to do that same thing for him and for anyone who was struggling with addiction stuff.”
Levinson also nodded to cast member Dominic Fike, who also “talked on the record about the struggles that he had while shooting”.
However, it wasn’t as easy as providing an endless stream of support for the actors: “There’s also financial responsibilities. I have to deliver the show, but I wanted to make sure that the cast was safe and healthy,” Levinson explained.
Levinson has shared previously that Cloud’s character was supposed to pass away at the end of the first season, but he “couldn’t do it”, as he “needed something to look forward to or else he might get lost in the world.”
Levinson almost killed off his character at the end of season two again, but again he “couldn’t do it, especially with everything we’d gone through. I wanted him to have something to hold onto, a tangible goal for the future.”
News of Cloud’s passing hit the Euphoria creator hard. “When I heard the news that he had passed away I was very angry about it,” Levinson admitted, “and especially about fentanyl. Losing him made me sit down and think, what story do I really want to tell? What matters in life? And through the soul-searching of that, Season three began to crystallize.”
The third season of Euphoria will premiere on April 12th.
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