After just one episode, Euphoria Season 3 has already invited controversy to its doorstep, with fans fuming over the Sydney Sweeney dog scene. In response, program creator Sam Levinson has hit back at the criticism by explaining that he intentionally added the sequence to highlight the “absurdity” of it.

Sam Levinson explains Sydney Sweeney’s dog scene in Euphoria Season 3

The 41-year-old filmmaker revealed that he intended the highly reprehensible scene to be this jarring in order to emphasize how disillusioned Cassie in Euphoria is from reality.

“[Cassie] has got her dog house and her little dog ears and the nose, and that has its own humor, but what makes the scene is the fact that her housekeeper is the one filming it,” Sam Levinson noted while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter. “What we wanted to always find is the other layer of absurdity that we’re able to tie into it so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion. The gag is to jump out, to break the wall.”

In a scene from Euphoria Season 3 Episode 1, Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie controversially dresses up as a dog to create content for her followers. Later, she relays to Nate (Jacob Elordi) that she wants to open up an OnlyFans account to pay for their wedding.

In order to hit the point home, Levinson and director of photography Marcell Rév also paid much attention to the setting of Sweeney’s dog scene.

“An obvious choice would’ve been something modern and very plain and fancy, but we ended up choosing this mid-century home, which is a little tacky, but also stuck in the ‘70s,” Rév noted. “It’s probably a strange choice, but also it gives us possibilities. OnlyFans has its own aesthetic, and how you elevate that aesthetic to the show’s aesthetic is a challenge.”

Sam Levinson concluded his account on the topic by adding, “We wanted to capture what she’s trying to show the audience and be inside of it, but then also pull back wider and see how depressing it is.”