Ron Leshem: “Hollywood Told Us ‘Euphoria’ Couldn’t Happen With Teenage Lead Characters But We Were Determined To Present Gen Z Differently” — Iberseries
deadline.comEuphoria executive producer Ron Leshem flew into Spain this week and recalled how Hollywood had initially turned down the HBO hit over concerns about teenage lead characters.
In a panel at Madrid’s Iberseries & Platino Industria today focused on content for Gen Z, Leshem said both Euphoria and the Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things hit the same roadblock, as networks initially fretted over the idea of teenagers leading a series that wasn’t specifically a teen drama. “Everyone told us we needed to be more like Skins,” he said, referencing the influential British drama from Channel 4 that set Nicholas Hoult, Kaya Scodelario, Dev Patel, Joe Dempsie and Hannah Murray on the road to stardom. “We didn’t want to do Skins.
We wanted to stand out and do something different,” said Leshem, who eventually sold Euphoria to HBO alongside co-creator Sam Levinson. “Artistically, we wanted to do Trainspotting meets Kids meets Requiem for a Dream.” HBO’s Francesca Orsi and Casey Bloys were ultimately “bold and imaginative enough” to pair Leshem and his team with Levinson and his “genius filmmaker’s soul, and the rest is history,” said Leshem.
The show, set in a fictional Californian town, focuses on a group of teenagers who balance hope with the strains of love, loss and addiction.
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