In episode 6 of Euphoria, fans were on the edge of their seat when Nate (Jacob Elordi) appears in Maddy’s (Alexa Demie) room with a gun — only to reveal that it’s not actually loaded and he would never kill his ex-girlfriend.
The whole reason why Nate breaks into Maddy’s bedroom is because he knows she has that tape, a.k.a. the evidence that shows Nate’s father, Cal (Eric Dane), hooking up with Jules (Hunter Schafer).
Now, Demie revealed that there were alternate ways the scene might have played out.
“Yeah, it was something that [creator] Sam [Levinson] and I spoke about a lot when we first got back for season 2,” she admitted. “It’s something that I also brought up a lot. And there were different ways it was written, many different ways of what was gonna happen with the disc. There was a moment where I was gonna give the tape to Jules with a letter saying, ‘I think you’d want this,’ and not say who was giving it to her, but give it back to her, which felt really nice for me. And there was a part of me that really wanted to see that happen, but I think the way it goes down keeps the story going, and it’s drama.”
“She knew it was Jules, which is part of why she was wanting to hold on to it. Part of it was collateral for Nate, because he’s just f**ked her over so many times, but I think a big part of her really did want to give it to Jules, or not see Jules hurt in any way,” she continued.
As for why Maddy didn’t instantly fess up to Nate, Demie explained: “Despite her feeling fear, she’s trying to test how far this person she thought loved her would go. She also knows it’s Jules in the tape and doesn’t want to see her get hurt by giving it back to him. She’s going through every possible situation in her head while in survival mode and we see this person go too far, which breaks her. It’s heartbreaking to see her experience something so violent and traumatic, and it’s the moment that really shifts things for her.”
The scene wasn’t easy to film, and Demie and Elordi were “really figuring it out as we went on and as we were shooting it.”
“Sam was discovering new things with the camera, and Jacob and I were discovering new things with the dynamic between us. There were a couple of moments that were improvised, but not a lot of prep [or] conversation beforehand. And then during, I mean, it’s such an intense scene that when you’re not filming — because when they break, they’re figuring out light and there’s a lot going on — as an actor you just have to try to stay in your own world, and I’m definitely not the type of actor that can just break a scene like that and start laughing and joking. I have to kind of stay in my own world and tune everyone else out,” she shared.
