If you’ve been watching Euphoria, then Alexa Demie, who plays Maddy Perez, has been running the show ever since the characters were introduced in season 1.
When we meet Maddy, she is in a relationship with Nate (played by Jacob Elordi), but fans soon realize their relationship is toxic. They later split, but it seems like they just can’t shake one another.
As for how the brunette beauty gets into character, she admitted that she “use[s] my mom for a lot of things,” as when she was growing up, screaming and fighting constantly occurred in her house.
“I think I feel her pain really strongly. I tell my mind I’m releasing the pain, to heal it,” Demie said.
Prior to Euphoria, she had small roles in TV shows including The OA and Ray Donovan. She later auditioned for Mid90s, a film that was written and directed by Jonah Hill. Later on, after she didn’t nab a part in the film Never Goin’ Back, which was directed by Augustine Frizzell, her career changed for the better when she landed the role as Maddy.
“I keep booking these dark, dramatic roles,” she said.
In addition to acting, Demie sings and designs clothing — she released her first single “Girl Like Me” in 2016 and she even traveled to Japan after she came out with a sunglasses collection called Mainframe.
Though the star had a tough childhood, it is part of who she is today. “I’ve revolted my entire life, from a super toxic family environment. Running away from home as a teenager was a major revolt. I had to figure out where I was going to live and sleep, but I needed to do that to become who I am now,” she declared. “To stay was to be stifled. It bleeds into every single piece of work, whether people have seen it yet or not. Everything from my music to acting, writing and how I carry myself in the world is all because of that. I live in the surreal, it compounds the world I’ve built and made real for myself.”
Demie is also coming full circle, as she is supposedly producing a film about her life — which will feature her relationship with her mother.
“I think just growing up changed my relationship with her. We’ve always been incredibly close. She’s one of my best friends. I think we did have our issues when I was a teenager and just growing up, working on these films and having to play these dark roles, it helps me to kind of relate and have compassion for anyone in those situations,” she said.
“Despite [my mom] not having any support emotionally or financially, she was always the number one person in my life. She was just always so positive when the rest of my family really wasn’t. They didn’t really believe that you could do what I’m doing. She was always the one to be like, ‘You can do anything you want.’ I think she instilled that in me,” she added. “Working on her film has helped us heal a lot of our traumas.”
