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Chloe Cherry is “extremely tired” of being asked about sex work. But it’s hard to get around the topic when it’s a focal point of Euphoria Season 3, and she stars in the controversial HBO series. Cherry plays Faye, a deadpan, deceptively observant drug smuggler working with Zendaya’s Rue and a drug addict herself. As the show leans harder into shock value this season, Cherry is one of the few cast members willing to interrogate what the Sam Levinson series is actually saying. Since she’s no stranger to the realities of sex work herself, it’s understandable that she has become a voice of critique. But it’s also fair that Cherry doesn’t want to be positioned as a spokesperson for an industry she only dabbled in. As Euphoria asks if sex work is empowering or just a means to an end, Cherry has insights that are completely unexpected. Like her character, she’s become one of the show’s quiet truth-tellers, mixing bluntness and vulnerability into every answer. 

Nearly every major character in this season of Euphoria is, in some way, entangled in transactional intimacy, blurring the line between survival, choice, and spectacle. TV’s most polarizing series has doubled down on sex work as a central plot device. Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) wants a quick payout to fund her extravagant wedding to Nate (Jacob Elordi) so she turns to OnlyFans, despite already living in luxury. Maddy (Alexa Demie) is a model manager (including OnlyFans models) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) is a sugar baby. Rue is also working at a strip club.

As Euphoria Season 3 storylines spiral into increasingly sensational territory, Cherry has thoughts and they are razor sharp. In conversation with Refinery29’s Taylor Loren, Cherry talks about her now famous Gen-Z pout, the control she had over Faye’s look, and her real thoughts on OnlyFans and that controversial Cassie storyline. 

@refinery29 Episode 2 of #Euphoria just dropped and @Chloe Cherry ♬ original sound – Refinery29

How much input did you have into how your character Faye looks and presents herself on screen?

Chloe Cherry: For Season 3, I actually did have a lot of input in how Faye looks and presents herself on screen, because of the fact that Sam and I worked together so much to create who Faye was in Season 2 that for Season 3, they really trusted my input on what I felt like Faye would be wearing. We did this long wardrobe test, where we tried on so many things. And as soon as they would put something on me, I would just know. I’d be, like, “Faye wouldn’t wear this. Faye would wear this.” I just knew what Faye would have access to based off of how she lives versus not.

The thing that’s really trending on the internet right now is the Gen Z pout, and lots of people credit you as one of the people who made that so popular. What are your thoughts on the Gen Z pout?

CC: It’s not like a pout, it’s just my natural resting face. It’s when I rest all the muscles in my face. And my whole life, I’ve been told that I have Resting Bitch Face, and I would always think That’s so unfair. This is literally just what my face naturally looks like when it’s resting. Why do I have to be smiling at all times for you to be comfortable near me? I just never could understand why that term “Resting Bitch Face” even existed and why people had been saying it to me since I was, like, 15 years old. To the point that I was like I’m never fucking smiling again! And I’m gonna convince the whole next generation to also stop smiling. There you fucking go.

I just can’t stand this whole thing: “Oh, you’re so pretty. You should smile more.” I’m just at the grocery store. Why would I just be smiling at all times? When I’m just feeling normal and content, my face is just like that. I’d look like a weirdo if I was just smiling.

I want to talk to you about some of the themes in the show around sex work and power. I think you’re a very qualified person on the cast to talk about that, but at the same time, I’m also aware that that’s probably something that a lot of people lead with. Do you ever get tired of those questions? 

CC: I do get extremely tired of people asking me about sex work. One is because I actually wasn’t a very successful sex worker. Two is because I barely spent any time in that industry at all. Again, because I was not that successful. Three, it’s because there’s about 100 people that were astronomically more successful than me in that industry, that are still working at industry today, that did way more in that industry than I ever did or never am going to do, and know way more about the industry than I am ever going to know, and have way more experience in it than I do.

I always just say, like, “if you want to have a conversation about porn, why do you have me on?” There’s so many actual porn stars that are doing it today that you could interview instead if you want to talk about that. I never understood why everybody wants to talk to me about it when I actually wasn’t super unsuccessful in it and not popular at all. I wasn’t popular in the industry at all until I was on Euphoria. When I was actively working as a porn star, not a single person interviewed me.

You did an interview recently where you were talking about how you didn’t think that you would be able to in Hollywood [with your past in sex work]. In Episode 2, we see that Maddie has to give up a client because of the stigma that was attached to OnlyFans. But she’s saying “no, the norms are changing. There’s this transition.” Do you feel like that’s true?

CC: I do think that it’s true. OnlyFans and sex work have become more normalized, but it’s literally only because of capitalism and the economy getting worse. It has nothing to do with empowerment or power or anything. What it actually 100% has to do with is just the fact that we live under capitalism and the economy is horrible. That’s why people are turning to it.

Cassie says Only Fans means that she would be “the one in charge.” Do you think that that’s true? 

CC: If you look like Cassie, I guess [laughs]. People have the weirdest, ideas and like fantasies of sex work being so empowering and we’ve seen all these news stories where they’re like, oh, OnlyFans models makes $700 billion in a month, and everyone’s like, “whoa.” I literally just think that these things are a bit of smoke and mirrors, actually, and I don’t even really understand what it means to be on OnlyFans. Honestly, I don’t even really know what people are doing on there. It’s really hard to say if it would give her any power. Obviously Cassie is extremely attractive, so it probably would lead to her making a lot of money. But it just feels crazy as fuck to see somebody living like Cassie turn to sex work. It’s like, holy shit, that’s where we’re at in society? I really think that OnlyFans is a crazy, weird phenomenon of the 2020s that we will look back on and be very confused by. 

What does it feel like to be part of the center of the Euphoria universe? 

CC: It’s the best thing I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I’m not even kidding. I love being an actor. I love being a part of an ensemble, especially an ensemble of incredibly talented actors that I very much respect and I’m very honored to work with. Yes, I am so grateful that I got to be a lead. It was an amazing experience shooting the show. It was super fun. All the things that I got to do, all things that I got to learn and experience, all the people I got to meet. It was so fun. I just fell even more in love with acting, and I just really hope people like watching the show. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. You watch watch it below.

Euphoria Season 3 is airing now on HBO. 

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