Euphoria creator Sam Levinson is standing by the show's controversial depiction of OnlyFans culture.
During a recent appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, Levinson addressed criticism surrounding the HBO drama's third and final season, which featured Sydney Sweeney's character Cassie launching an OnlyFans account to pay for her lavish, $50,000 wedding to Nate Jacobs.
The storyline sparked intense debate online, with many sex workers and creators arguing that the show leaned into harmful stereotypes about the platform and its users.
Levinson, however, said he intentionally approached the subject from a skeptical perspective.
"If you look at OnlyFans, it is making as much money as Hollywood," he said. "It's not a niche business, it is a massive enterprise."
The writer-director said he became interested in exploring why so many young people are drawn to the platform, especially in an era where social media encourages users to treat themselves like brands.
"If you're young, you're going, 'I don't want to go work in a 9-to-5 at this place or that thing. Well, maybe I can just start taking photos of myself,'" Levinson said. "The question is, what are the long-term consequences of that?"
He added that the allure of quick money and online fame was a central theme he wanted to examine.
"I just thought chasing that desire, that kind of fast cash, was an interesting thing to kind of explore," he said.
Levinson acknowledged that the show received backlash for its portrayal but questioned whether the response would have been different if Euphoria had presented the platform in a more positive light.
"We take a fairly critical look at it," he said. "It hollows out the individual. You're constantly just depending on the likes and external validation."
Maher later praised Alexa Demie's character Maddy, who manages several creators on the show, calling her the season's "moral center." Levinson offered his own description of the role.
"She was managing the girls, which is an all new industry," he said. "It's sort of light pimping."
Not everyone involved with Euphoria agrees with Levinson's take.
Actress Chloe Cherry, who worked in adult entertainment and built a following on OnlyFans before joining the series as Faye, previously called Cassie's storyline "crazy as fuck."
"It's really hard to say if it would give her any power," Cherry said in an earlier interview. "Obviously Cassie is extremely attractive, so it probably would lead to her making a lot of money. But it just feels crazy as fuck to see somebody living like Cassie turn to sex work."
Cherry argued that society's growing embrace of platforms like OnlyFans is tied more to economic realities than empowerment.
"I really think that OnlyFans is a crazy, weird phenomenon of the 2020s that we will look back on and be very confused by," she said.
