Sam Levinson’s controversies, explained, including ‘Euphoria’ tension, nepo baby drama, and ‘The Idol’ turmoil

The Idol/HBO

In a turn of events that will shock absolutely nobody who hasn’t been in a coma for a decade, Hollywood may be adding another name to its never-ending list of misogynistic creeps. Sam Levinson — son of Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson — has been in the news recently for subjecting the cast and crew of his new show, The Idol, to disturbing sexual content and “torture porn.” While many were excited for the release of the show (because what we really need is another story by a powerful, privileged man about a powerful, privileged man taking advantage of a vulnerable, desperate woman), a lot of the buzz has been dampened by these revelations.

However, as is almost always the case when someone’s outed for this kind of behavior, there were plenty of warning signs about Euphoria creator Levinson before the recent Rolling Stone expose shed even more light on his antics. While as a culture we’ve mostly moved away from the idea that directors and showrunners have carte blanche to abuse their staff to create art, it’s clear not everyone got the memo. But just how loud were the alarms about Levinson’s behavior? And is he just somebody who pushes hard for his vision, or yet another bully throwing his weight around under the guise of making a show?

Who is Sam Levinson?

Sam Levinson is an American-born filmmaker and actor. His father is Barry Levinson, a director who had a slew of hits in the late eighties and early nineties, including Good Morning, Vietnam and Rain Man, the latter of which won him an Academy Award.

The younger Levinson made his acting debut alongside his brother, Jack, in his dad’s film Toys. His next two acting projects were also directed by his dad. He had one more acting role in the indie flick Stoic before he switched to writing, directing, and producing full time. His directorial debut, Another Happy Day, won the Waldo Salt screenwriting award at Sundance.

His first foray into television writing came in 2017 with TV-movie The Wizard of Lies, also directed by his dad, but his star really rose in 2019 with the release of Euphoria. He wrote, directed, and produced the U.S version of the scintillating teen drama, which was based off of an Israeli television series of the same name.

What are Sam Levinson’s controversies?

While the accolades were piling up for Levinson, especially with regards to Euphoria, there were some more troubling bits of information coming out about the American director at the same time. Here are some of his most infamous controversies.

Getting jobs through daddy

While there’s no doubt Levinson has created and directed content that chimes with a wide audience, for successful people in Hollywood there’s no doubt their father’s position help them get a foot in the door (or, in Sam’s case, an entire leg). His first acting and writing roles were all on projects his famous father directed, produced, or both.

Levinson isn’t the first or last person to get a leg up thanks to family connections, and nobody can blame Barry for trying to do the best by his son, but considering Sam’s seemingly troubling behavior (as we’ll detail below), it seems prudent to ask if his inherent power in the industry has contributed to his transgressions and inability to work well with others?

An insistence on writing nude scenes

Nudity is a charged subject, and can be a big deal for performers, especially younger ones. Most would also agree nudity shouldn’t just be done for the sake of titillating an audience, but like everything in a script, should advance the plot or characterization in some way. Insisting on your characters being naked for no real reason doesn’t exactly make someone a Weinstein, but if it’s combined with other troubling behavior, can paint a picture of someone’s personality. Enter Sam Levinson.

Various cast members of Euphoria have discussed how there were numerous times Levinson wrote nudity into scenes where it simply wasn’t necessary. Sometimes, he would even do this as a rewrite on the day of shooting, which is troubling in its own right. When on set, actors carry a lot of weight in terms of getting scenes filmed, as taking too long can impact budgets and timings, and possibly even run a show into the ground. Not only that, but if an actor argues with a director about a choice they’ve made, they risk being kicked off the show, a harrowing and scary experience for any professional, let alone the young, usually unconnected performers Levinson was working with on Euphoria.

To be fair to Levinson, sex is a huge part of the appeal of Euphoria, and he was always happy to accommodate his cast’s wishes, so this isn’t quite as bad as it might first appear. But rewriting scenes and ambushing performers with nudity still isn’t ideal behavior, even if it’s rowed back on when challenged.

18-hour workdays and “toxic” conditions

Unlike the previous controversies, there’s no real grey area when it comes to how Levinson allegedly treated staff during the filming of season two of Euphoria. As per the Daily Beast, Levinson often ran 18 hour plus workdays, exacerbated by the director turning up to set without a shot list. Many of the crew complained they weren’t fed on time either, and that there weren’t enough bathrooms on set. There have even been claims that a SAG-AFRA union representative had to show up to ensure basic workplace standards were being followed, although the union has neither confirmed nor denied this.

Conditions were especially bad for extras, with some sources stating they would hide in the bushes to avoid being called to set thanks to Levinson’s laissez faire attitude to shooting, which often meant actors weren’t aware if they’d be working for 30 minutes or three hours. Add in the fact that shooting often began in the late afternoon and ended at the crack of dawn, and you have a recipe for a truly toxic set.

Cutting back Barbie Ferreira’s screen time after an argument

As news of the shambolic way season two of Euphoria was filmed hit the internet, rumors of a feud between Levinson and Barbie Ferreira, one of the show’s stars, began circulating. Ferreira walked off set after a series of incidents, including one where she hurt herself during a hot tub scene. She was also involved in conversations about the direction of the show where she disagreed with Levinson, which led to the director cutting at least one of her major scenes, something confirmed by sources to the Daily Beast. The fan favorite, who plays Kat Hernandez, has done very little to dispel these stories, giving fluff PR responses when grilled about her relationship with Levinson in various interviews. She is not returning for season three.

The Idol’s grim set

Narratives about powerful men abusing desperate women have the power to be educational and transformative, yet Hollywood keeps hiring old men to write and direct them, which usually ends up with the camera once again being a fetishistic tool instead of a means to tell a great story. The Idol looked like it might buck the trend when Amy Seimetz was hired to direct the six-episode drama about a Hollywood starlet trying to recapture her fame while falling in with a creepy cult leader, but then she promptly quit the show in April 2022. Levinson, up until that point a writer and producer, stepped in to direct. Nobody explained why she quit, but there are reports the Weeknd felt the show had too much of a “female perspective” under her stewardship.

From there, it’s all been a downward spiral. The show is now late and millions over budget, allegedly because of Levinson’s insistence on rewrites and reshoots. His megalomaniac tendencies were then allowed to fully flourish, allegedly enabled happily by the Weeknd, and the supposedly dark satire about 21st century fame ended up becoming what it was supposed to be making fun of.

“It was like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show,” said one production member. HBO has consistently defended the show and money maker Levinson, telling Rolling Stone:

 “…the creative team has been committed to creating a safe, collaborative, and mutually respectful working environment, and last year, the team made creative changes they felt were in the best interest of both the production and the cast and crew.”

When he took over, Levinson put his now patented stamp of disorganization on things, with endless script changes and other issues that production members have described as “chaos.” His rewrites have also been described as “rape fantasies” and “torture porn” by those on set, although they were happy to point out that the very worst scenes (including one where Lily-Rose Depp begs the Weekend’s character to rape her) didn’t end up getting filmed.

As it is, nobody really knows how The Idol will turn out. But one thing is for sure: Sam Levinson, enabled by the Weeknd, has bought into his own hype, even though he’s simply rehashing old, misogynistic, and frankly boring tropes. Great cinematography and acting can turn hacky, cliche writing into something good, as we saw with Euphoria, but it seems like Levinson has pushed it too far this time. Hopefully daddy won’t be able to dig him out of this mess.