Creator/Showrunner Sam Levinson Previews HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ at the ATX Television Festival [Video]

HBO’s Euphoria has quickly become one of the most talked-about new shows of the upcoming summer season.

The teen drama, based on the Israeli series of the same name, is making headlines for its explicit and rather shocking nature, setting it distinctly apart from other coming-of-age stories that have aired on the small screen before.

While attending the ATX Television Festival opening night red carpet last week, we had the opportunity to speak with creator Sam Levinson, who wrote all six episodes of the first season and directed three of them.

Levinson spoke first about the process of developing the series, elucidating how the original Israeli show of the same name and his own personal experiences melded together to form HBO’s Euphoria.

“It wasn’t a strict adaptation in that sense. I had gone into HBO and they had owned the format and we’d talked about it. They asked me what I liked about it — how raw and unflinching [it is],” Levinson explained.

“Francesca Orsi, who’s the head of drama there — the best executive I’ve ever worked with and could ever dream of working with — [and I], we started talking about our lives. We talked about my struggles with addiction and anxiety and a host of other things,” he continued. “We talked for about an hour and a half, and then she said ‘Great, go write that!’ I was like, ‘Write what?’ And she goes, ‘Everything you just said.'”

“I went back and started writing and that’s ultimately what became the pilot and then kind of gave birth to the series. She encouraged me to keep putting more and more of my own personal experiences into the piece. That’s how it came to be,” Levinson said.

Levinson and his team of casting directors took particular care to find performers who could bring the proper energy to the series.

“The idea was to create this energy with certain non-actors and actors that felt real and sort of honest,” he explained.

In the end, Levinson was very pleased with everyone who ended up joining the project.

“I’m really proud of this cast,” Levinson said. “They’re all just wonderful to work with, and wonderful human beings too.”

*Additional reporting by Ashley Bissette Sumerel.

Check out all of our coverage of ATX Television Festival right here. There is still more to come!

Euphoria premieres Sunday, June 16th at 10/9c on HBO.

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