Sam Levinson has revealed that pitching Rue’s death to Zendaya was one of the most emotional conversations in the entire world. Euphoria the production, and that the weight of it remained with both of them throughout the shoot.
speaks to Blackdescribed the show’s creator as telling his lead actress that her character would not survive the final season.
“When I beat her this season and the end, it was a very emotional reaction,” Levinson said.
“We love the character of Rue. She’s 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 filming, it kind of weighed on both of us.”
The decision to kill Rue was deeply personal for Levinson, who has spoken openly about his own history of substance abuse.
The season three arc 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 turns out to be laced with fentanyl.
After a dream sequence where she returns home to her mother, it is revealed that 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 honor Angus, someone that we loved dearly and really rooted for and saw the best in,” Levinson said.
Domingo’s presence on set during the final scenes provided a grounding connection for all involved.
“We also had Colman Domingo there, who has been one of my closest collaborators for over a decade and also a grounding force in Zendaya’s life,” 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 few days shooting those scenes because we knew how the audience would react to it.”
Levinson also shared a behind-the-scenes detail about the season’s memorable opening sequence, in which Rue tries to drive his battered Jeep across the US-Mexico border.
The original concept was somewhat different.
“Originally she was going to swim across the Rio Grande,” he said.
The change happened during a scout at the Drug Enforcement Administration’s offices in Los Angeles, where Levinson spotted a photo on the wall of a Jeep perched atop a border wall.
When asked what happened, a DEA agent explained that someone had simply tried to drive a car across the border.
“I thought, ‘That’s the kind of idiotic thing Rue would do,'” Levinson said. “And so we ended up recreating it.”
