Euphoria's Austin Abrams reveals Ethan's dance was slightly different in the original script

25 February 2022, 14:30

Austin Abrams opens up about Euphoria’s Hero dance scene

By Katie Louise Smith

The scene in the original script called for underwear and a lot more oil...

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I think we can all agree that the world premiere of Lexi Howard's play in Euphoria season 2 was THE event of the year. (Well, everyone except Nate and Cassie... they absolutely hated it.)

Lexi's magnum opus, 'Our Life', was a light exposé on her life and her time at East Highlands High School so far, featuring friends Rue, Maddy, Kat, and her sister Cassie. But the wildest scene of all? The homoerotic dance number featuring Ethan (Austin Abrams) as a character called 'Jake', who was meant to be a heightened version of Nate Jacobs.

People have been living for Austin's performance in the episode, and now, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Austin has spilled on what that scene was originally meant to look like.

Turns out Ethan's lil dance number was slightly different in the original script, with a lot of oil and tight underwear.

Austin Abrams on Ethan's dance in original script. Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO, HBO via YouTube

In the scene that eventually made it to air, Ethan and the rest of the locker room jocks are seen dancing and writhing about wearing football pants, socks and shoes. It's quite the moment.

But Austin revealed that when he first read the script, the scene was written with all the guys wearing “tighty-whities," and "lathered down in oil and doing all these things.”

Austin then admitted that he was terrified about the whole thing: “That’s not something previously that I had done in a long time, with dancing and stuff. But it was also really exciting. So, it was a combination of those two things.”

Thankfully, the underwear and the excessive use of baby oil ended up not making it into the final scene, and Austin became more comfortable with the whole routine after working with choreographer Ryan Heffington.

Maude Apatow reveals Lexi’s play was inspired by her own life

Discussing the scene with Variety in another interview, Austin revealed that it took three days to shoot that absolutely wild musical sequence.

"It took a lot of physical exertion. I was doing that dance a million times over those days," he confessed. "But, I loved the dance, I loved the guys that I was dancing with and it felt very real. I loved the energy exchanged between the performers and the actors and the audience because there was a crowd there."

The second half of Lexi's play is set to air in Sunday's finale episode (Feb 27). Who knows what kind of chaos Austin's Ethan will bring us before the curtain closes.