For the first time since the news of Angus Cloud’s death broke, Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has opened up about his attempts to get the young actor help for his substance abuse problems. In a sprawling interview with PEOPLE, Levinson recalled the day he called Cloud into his office and leveled with him about the actor’s drug use.
“I looked him in the eye and I knew that he wasn’t doing well,” an emotional Levinson said about the first time he got Cloud into rehab. “At the same time I’ve been in these situations before where you’re trying to get someone clean. And I just said to him, ‘I love working with you and we’ve got this amazing season planned and stuff, but I need you to be sober because I got to be able to rely on you.’”
Cloud did the 30-day stint in rehab and returned to Euphoria while continuing to work with an outpatient program. But Levinson could already see the efforts weren’t working.
“I could always feel that he didn’t want [sobriety] as much as we all wanted it for him,” Levinson said. “That’s where it gets tricky because the whole world can want it for you. But he didn’t want it. It’s just the self-destructive side of addiction and it outweighs everything. But you can’t give up on people. I wasn’t going to let anyone give up on him.”
After an intervention and another trip to rehab didn’t do the trick, Levinson had a four hour talk about how Cloud needed to be sober for Season 3 or he wouldn’t be allowed on set. It was a difficult decision because Levinson also felt it was “safer” for Cloud to be at work.
“No, no, I’m good. I’m good,” Levinson recalled Cloud telling him. “I could tell, at that time, it was like he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t going to do anything, and yeah, he didn’t want it.”
Unfortunately, Levinson was correct. Cloud continued to use drugs until his death in July 2023.
(Via PEOPLE)