What to Know About Alexa Demie, Who Plays Maddy on Euphoria
Warning: The following post contains spoilers for episode four of HBO's Euphoria.
Maddy is the chili-throwing, c-word-dropping character on Euphoria
She's played by 24-year-old Alexa Demie
Demie's career spans acting, fashion, and music
The narrational focus of Sunday’s episode will be our favorite C-word dropping character, Maddy Perez. Rolling with the likes of Kat and Cassie, Maddy made her Euphoria entrance in front of a mirror, preparing for a party. Since then, she’s been off and then on with Euphoria antagonist Nate; she macked on another guy to spite him, she caught his dick picks, she pushed over his dad’s chili bowl, and called his mom a … yeah, Maddy’s a bad bitch. With the focus coming her way in the show's fifth episode, Maddy is about to be fleshed out even more. Here are a few things to know about the 24-year-old star.
She’s a designer
In an interview with V Magazine, Demie discusses her entrepreneurial teens: the designing of her own sunglasses line (which apparently received Japanese investment and was sported by Jennifer Lopez and Nicki Minaj), and her design work on a music video costume for Minaj. Not too bad.
A post shared by @ alexademie on Jul 4, 2019 at 11:53am PDT
She's also a singer
Demie has been writing music since her tween years. (Check out her single “Girl Like Me”–a girl, thankfully, not like Maddy–sung in a dreamy, lounge-singer-like style, reminiscent of Lana Del Rey.) Demie’s even directed a music video.
In an interview with W Magazine, she said she was on the cusp of taking an acting break to pursue music. But then she got a call to read for Euphoria. And now she’s toppling chili bowls.
Euphoria isn’t her first high-school-aged (or controversial) role
Demie also starred in Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, Mid90s, where she plays an ambiguously-aged high schooler named Estee. Later in the film Estee hooks up with the film’s protagonist in a super uncomfortable moment. (He is 13.) Hill defended the scene by saying the protagonist’s high-fiving-cherry-pop proved a “fucked-up lesson that a lot of people now are having to unlearn from this time period.”
Demie has also appeared in Netflix’s The OA and Showtime’s Ray Donavan. Euphoria, however, marks her largest recurring television role.
A post shared by @ alexademie on Oct 11, 2018 at 6:59pm PDT
She was purposely out of the country when Euphoria premiered
In an interview with Vogue, Demie says she escaped to Mexico during the HBO network premiere. She booked a hotel without a television, but when air time rolled around, Demie caved and logged onto Twitter. The show was blowing up. She wasn’t too upset about peeking.
She sees Maddy as a “female Patrick Bateman”
Minus the killing, she adds. (Bateman, of course, was the protagonist in Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, played famously in the film adaptation by Christian Bale. Like Maddy’s, Bateman’s openings scene in the film also features him staring into a mirror). As she told V Magazine: “It’s the craziest shit I’ve ever read in my life.”
And we're just barely past halfway through this season. God help these kids.
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