Sam Levinson has revealed that pitching Rue’s death to Zendaya was one of the most emotionally charged conversations of the entire Euphoria production, and that the weight of it stayed with both of them throughout filming.
Speaking to Variety, the show’s creator described telling his lead actress that her character would not survive the final season.
“When I pitched her this season and the ending, it was a very emotional reaction,” Levinson said.
“We love the character Rue. She has done such an incredible job bringing this character to life… in the hands of a lesser actor, the character wouldn’t be as charming and lovable and humorous. So it was a tough discussion. Even through shooting, it sort of weighed on both of us.”
The decision to kill Rue was deeply personal for Levinson, who has spoken openly about his own history with drug addiction.
The arc of season three was largely shaped by the death of Angus Cloud, who played Fezco in the first two seasons and died of a drug overdose at the age of 25.
In the series finale, Rue takes painkillers from her boss Alamo, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, which turn out to be laced with fentanyl.
After a dream sequence in which she returns home to her mother, it is revealed she died in her sleep on the couch of her mentor Ali, played by Colman Domingo.
“At the end of the day, she understood what I was doing, and it felt like the right way to honour Angus, someone whom we loved dearly and really rooted for and saw the best in,” Levinson said.
The presence of Domingo on set during those final scenes provided a grounding force for everyone involved.
“We also had Colman Domingo there, who’s been one of my closest collaborators for over a decade and a grounding force in Zendaya’s life as well,” Levinson said.
“That kind of camaraderie really helped this sequence feel authentic and meaningful. We’ve been doing this for eight or nine years together, so it was a beautiful couple of days as we were shooting those scenes, because we knew how audiences would respond to it.”
Levinson also shared a behind-the-scenes detail about the season’s memorable opening sequence, in which Rue attempts to drive her battered Jeep across the US-Mexico border fence.
The original concept was rather different.
“Originally, she was supposed to be swimming across the Rio Grande,” he said.
The change came during a scout at the Drug Enforcement Administration offices in Los Angeles, where Levinson spotted a photo on the wall of a Jeep lodged on top of a border wall.
When he asked what happened, a DEA agent explained that someone had simply tried to drive a car over the border.
“I thought, ‘That’s the kind of moronic thing Rue would do,'” Levinson said. “And so we ended up recreating it.”
