"Euphoria" star Dominic Fike says his drug use nearly cost him his job on the show.
"I was a drug addict, and coming onto a show mainly about drugs is very difficult," he explained in an interview with Apple Music posted to YouTube July 5. Fike is sober now, he said.
The 27-year-old joined the HBO teen drama for Season Two. Production for the season began in spring 2021. Fike told GQ magazine for a story published in April 2021 he was sober at the time.
While playing a drug user on set, Fike would be high in real life, he said in the interview with Apple Music. He said show staff offered some support to try and help him before almost firing him.
"Sam (Levinson), the director (and) writer, was like, he got me a sober coach, somebody to be there all the time," he said. "Did not work."
Set leadership objected to him showing up high to work, Fike said.
"I was so f---ed up during a lot of that show," he said. "It was really bad, but I was reprimanded for it. I almost got kicked off the show."
He said they took him aside and told him, "Bro, you cannot be doing this," he recalled.
At the same time, the show used the scenes just the same because "they had to," he said.
"That's entertainment," he said. "They give you a bunch of money and are just like, yeah, figure it out, bud. Sink or swim."
TODAY.com has reached out to reps for Fike and Levinson for comment.
The singer and songwriter told Complex in 2019 that drugs were something he grew up around.
“I knew that drugs f---ed people up, but I just didn’t connect it because the people I’d been around my whole life were always on drugs," he said.
Fike said in the GQ interview from 2021 that his album "What Could Possibly Go Wrong," released the year before, describes some of the low moments he felt at the time.
The album "was so hectic and fragmented because that’s really how I was," he said. "I took some time off, and now I don’t feel that. Also, no drugs and alcohol anymore. I eat right; I drink water. Meditation helps me."
He said he's proud of his sobriety journey.
"It’s been two and a half months," he said at the time. "I can make full songs now, and I don’t hate them. I make music by myself, so I need to be sober to know how to plug this s--- in here. I’m so proud of how far my music has come."
These days, Fike is gearing up for Season Three of "Euphoria," the production of which is currently paused due to the ongoing writers strike.
When asked in the Apple Music interview if he's excited to return to set sober, he let out a long, excited: "Yeah."
