‘I was a drug addict and coming onto a show mainly about drugs, it was very difficult’
Musician and actor Dominic Fike has said that having a sober coach on the set of Euphoria didn’t help him to stay sober.
He made his Euphoria debut on the show’s second season, in 2022, playing the role of Elliot – a student who befriends Ru (Zendaya) and starts using drugs with her, complicating her relationship with Jules (Hunter Schafer.) For someone struggling with addiction themselves, this proved to be a challenging role, and he was eventually almost “kicked off” set for using drugs.
“I was a drug addict and coming onto a show mainly about drugs, it was very difficult,” Dominic said last week in a live interview with Variety at the Sundance Film Festival.
Fike was appearing at Sundance to promote his new film, Little Death, which is directed by a good friend of his, Jack Bergert. While Fike is once again starring as a drug addict, he said filming with one of his closest friends made the process much easier than it was on Euphoria.
“When I was on ‘Euphoria,’ they kind of just gave me a coach who would just talk to you. It was just some random lady," he said. “We had nothing in common. We didn’t come from the same places or the same problems. It was hard to take advice from someone like that or give a shit.” While he said that returning to Euphoria would be “dope”, he seemed sceptical whether or not it would happen, saying “I don’t really talk to them anymore.”
This is not the first time that Euphoria cast members have complained of an unhealthy environment on set. There have been a number of stories of actors expressing discomfort with excessive nudity and sexual scenes; in 2022, several unnamed sources complained to The Daily Beast about ‘toxic’ working conditions on set, and there have been long-running rumours of a feud between Sam Levinson and Barbie Ferreira (who plays Kat).
While there is no reason to believe this was related to his experience of working on Euphoria, Anglus Cloud – who plays Fezco – died of an overdose accidental overdose last July. Following Fike’s remarks, some people on social media have argued that it is irresponsible to cast people who are struggling with addiction on a show about addiction, particularly if this comes alongside a lack of adequate care.