Euphoria Creator Reveals He Planned to Kill Off Angus Cloud’s Character Fez, But Couldn’t: ‘We Got to Keep Him Around’

Dave Nemetz
·2 min read
1
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The late Euphoria actor Angus Cloud was such a magnetic presence on the HBO teen drama, even the show’s creator couldn’t bear to say goodbye to him.

Series creator Sam Levinson had originally planned to kill off Cloud’s character Fez during Season 1, but he changed his mind, Levinson tells People in a new interview about Cloud’s recent passing: “Angus was supposed to die at the end of the first season, but I loved him so f–king much.” He adds that his personal investment in Cloud led to the rewrite: “I think part of the problem is I would sometimes put actors ahead of the show at times. So I was like, ‘Okay, I can’t kill him because then what is he to look forward to?'”

More from TVLine

Cloud suffered from a drug addiction that plagued him throughout Euphoria‘s production, Levinson says, noting that he and his wife Ashley personally drove Cloud to one of his rehab stints during the filming of Season 2. “I could always feel that he didn’t want [sobriety] as much as we all wanted it for him. That’s where it gets tricky because the whole world can want it for you. But he didn’t want it. It’s just the self-destructive side of addiction, and it outweighs everything.”

In Season 2, Levinson again planned to kill off Fez, but when he broke the news to Cloud, “I could just see the blood kind of run out of his face. I think the hardest thing is when you have addiction issues — it’s about finding your purpose and finding your meaning in life. The one thing that I knew is he loved making this show. He loved the crew. He loved the actors. He loved everything about it. And I just thought, if this goes away, I don’t know what’s going to happen in his life.”

So Levinson went to his producing partners and told them, “‘I can’t do it. I can’t kill him. We got to keep him around. He’s too special. It doesn’t matter what the f–king story is.'” Ultimately, the script was changed, and Fez’s little brother Ashtray was the one who died in a hail of police gunfire in the Season 2 finale. Fez survived — but Cloud died in July at the age of 25, the result of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Best of TVLine

Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter

Click here to read the full article.