It was the summer of 2019, and HBO’s new gritty teen drama was everywhere. Love it or hate it, “Euphoria” was unavoidable, and everything from its soon-to-be megastars to the clothes, makeup and overall aesthetic of its neon-lit universe was seeping out from the confines of the screen and into the real world.
And at the center of this vibe shift, with raven-black hair and eyeliner as razor-sharp as her comebacks, was Mexican American actor Alexa Demie as Maddy Perez.
On paper, Maddy shouldn’t have been a particularly remarkable character. How often have we seen the popular high school cheerleader navigate a toxic relationship with the school’s hot jock? And how routinely have we seen a Latina relegated to the background, or sidelined once she’s fulfilled her role as a foil — the temptress, the toxic girlfriend, the temperamental best friend — for the blonder, whiter characters onscreen to “overcome” as they replace her in the spotlight?
Make no mistake: Maddy was a foil. In a show built around characters who fought to obscure nearly every facet of their true inner lives, Maddy was refreshingly, sometimes brutally herself. Who can forget the moment she slow-clapped her way to infamy in Season 1, parting a carnival crowd in her purple I.AM.GIA set as she announced to her boyfriend’s parents, “I’m not supposed to be here right now, because I’m dressed like a hooker, and none of you like me.”
Barbie Ferreira, from left, Alexa Demie and Sydney Sweeney in “Euphoria.”
(Eddy Chen/HBO)
In less capable hands, her bitchiness, her vanity, her vindictiveness would have made her one-dimensional. But Demie made her something more, imbuing Maddy with a kind of gravity and depth that made her as infuriating to watch as she was exciting. Through her, Maddy personified a new kind of Latina baddie — one who defied constraints, and carried herself with a confidence that asked the rest of the world to meet her on her terms.
As the show’s narrator, Rue Bennett (Zendaya), says in Season 1: “Maddy knew who she was from a very early age … She never knew exactly what it was. She just knew that she had something special. Something intangible. Something immeasurable. And she had that confidence.”
Central to Maddy’s characterization was her style. Demie worked closely with the show’s makeup and wardrobe stylists to craft Maddy’s look, helping the character evolve from someone obsessed with being the perfect girlfriend in the first half of Season 1, to a bolder, hyper-feminine rejection of the softness her boyfriend had expected of her.
By Seasons 2 and 3, Maddy’s fashion became a way to communicate an aspirational power. Though her inner life was explored less than those of some of the show’s other characters — we only see a handful of scenes at Maddy’s house, including an illuminating fight with her mom about loving someone you shouldn’t — we understand her desire to aim for a life that was never offered up to someone like her.
In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Sam Levinson revealed that Maddy’s character was initially intended to be white and blonde. During the audition process, he took Demie aside and gave her tips so that HBO’s executives wouldn’t think she was “too Latin” for the part. (Those tips included not wearing red, to “soften up” their perception of her.) Though it may pain me to say, as a frequent critic of Levinson’s work, it’s clear that even he knew that it would be all too easy for executives to pigeonhole Demie.
“I was sick of going into those rooms, and this was during that time when you’re young and every few months you’re just like, ‘I’m quitting, I’m quitting,’ ” she told the Hollywood Reporter. “But knowing me, I never would have quit. I’m more of the energy of like, ‘No, I’m going to show you I can do it.’ ”
It’s ridiculous that this is even a fear one would have to have in Hollywood, which is already egregiously lacking in Latina main characters. And while it could be easy to write Maddy off as the exact stereotype Levinson wanted to steer Demie away from, the reality was more complex.
Many Latinas felt drawn to Maddy exactly because she was so far from the model minority that’s become more popular onscreen over the last decade. She was flawed, of course, but in a show with a penchant for constantly one-upping its desire to shock and awe, Maddy’s outbursts were often a reflection of what the audience was thinking: the lone voice bold enough to say “B—, you better be joking.”
Barbie Ferreira as Kat, left, and Alexa Demie as Maddy, right, in the second season of “Euphoria.”
(Eddy Chen / HBO)
Take her Season 2 crash out upon finding out that her best friend, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), had been seeing her ex behind her back. Or during the Season 2 finale, when the tension between the two former friends comes to a head and Maddy chases Cassie down, slapping her and slamming her into a wall.
It’s the kind of reaction that perfectly showcases Demie’s predicament in playing Maddy. From the beginning, her character was caught in a double-bind: Convey the kind of unbridled emotional and morally questionable reactions you might expect from a teenage girl placed in precarious scenarios, and be called a cliché; or act more reserved, coolheaded and mature than her age to avoid intimidating others. Maddy rejected those constraints.
Was she a complete jerk? Or just unwilling to get walked all over?
And while plenty of people have complained about the character arcs throughout “Euphoria”’s three-season run, no one can deny Maddy’s growth. In Season #, she descends into the seedy underworld of strip clubs, gangsters and OnlyFans models — leveraging her own cynical understanding of human desperation and desire into a career as a talent manager. She goes from wanting to be a trophy wife with nothing to do, to braving a world that isn’t built for her, dressing and acting like she already has a seat at the table.
She’s grown up, but she’s still loyal to her own feelings. So when Cassie reenters her life, she sees it as an opportunity not just to exact revenge but to better herself in the process as Cassie’s manager.
Still as pragmatic and blunt as ever, the Maddy in “Euphoria”’s final season uses her style not as artifice, but as designer armor. She’s carefully constructed her own path to success — and she wasn’t trying to get there by blending in. So while some of the show’s characters met untimely or tragic ends, Maddy came through the other side as someone more powerful: a Latina who didn’t fade into the background but, instead, commanded our attention.
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