Nabbing their breakout roles! The cast of Euphoria may be known for their roles on the HBO show, but for some of the cast, this isn’t the first TV show they’ve appeared on. While some of the stars did get their acting start on Euphoria, others already had a full resume under their belts.
Zendaya, for example, won an Emmy Award for her starring role as Rue Bennett in the series, but she actually grew up as a child star in Hollywood. Now, she’s acting and executive producing various projects — like Euphoria.
“I think, like a lot of artists, I’m my biggest critic, so some of it was internal — not wanting to make a mistake or worrying that maybe I didn’t have the room to make a mistake and wanting to make the right next move,” the Disney Channel alum told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2020 about transitioning to more mature roles. “But I also wanted to prove myself. When Euphoria came along, I was very grateful because all those fears melted away and I felt like it was something that I had to be a part of. So, the fear became just, like, push yourself. If you go to work and you’re scared, that’s a good thing. You should be worried about whether you can do it.”
Zendaya often shares the screen with Hunter Schafer (Jules Vaughn), who seems like a total pro. However, being cast in the HBO show was actually the model’s first-ever acting role. She told Entertainment Weekly in June 2019 that she had never “acted before and was not planning on it really either” until she got cast.
She recalled: “I was modeling for about a year in New York and had my sights set on fashion school afterwards and then as I was getting ready and gearing up for fashion school I saw this casting call floating around on Instagram. It was for trans girls, who didn’t have to be experienced and it didn’t say Euphoria or anything but I was like, ‘Huh.’ I had been interested in trying acting and like I went to school with actors and whatnot, and I was interested in the craft but, didn’t really push myself to do it. Then, my model agency rang me up a few days later and had me go in for an audition and it was the weirdest thing—it kept going. And they hooked me up with an acting coach through the audition process and he cracked me like an egg and I kind of, like, started falling in love with the script and, like, acting itself over that period of time and it happened, like, I got cast.”
Some Euphoria stars have similar stories to Hunter, while others are well-known names. Scroll through our gallery to uncover the cast of Euphoria’s first-ever acting roles.
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