Dominic Fike is speaking openly about his drug addiction and said that it almost cost him his role in HBO's hit series, Euphoria.
Fike, 27, who plays Elliott on the show, told Apple Music's Zane Lowe in an interview that his addiction got so bad during the filming of the show's second season that he was almost fired.
“I was a drug addict and coming on to a show that’s, you know, mainly about drugs, is very difficult,” Fike said in the interview. Fike's character is a heavy drug user and enables the show's main character Rue, played by Zendaya, to relapse and begin using again.
The actor and singer said that the show's creator, Sam Levinson, tried to hire a “sober coach” to help Fike with his drug use.
“Sam, the director and writer, got me a sober coach, somebody to be there all the time," Fike continued. "It did not work.”
When asked if he was ever high on set, Fike said, “Oh my god, Yeah, dude.”
“I was so f**ked up during a lot of that show. It was really bad," he continued, adding that it reached a point where Fike was almost fired from the show.
“I was reprimanded for it,” Fike continued. “I almost, you know, got kicked off the show… They were like, ‘Bro, you cannot be doing this.'”
Fike also said that Euphoria's producers ended up using scenes of the actor while he was under the influence in the final cut of the show — which Lowe pointed out as being “a bit of a double standard,” since they had previously told Fike to get sober.
“Yeah, that's entertainment dude,” Fike said in response. “They give you a bunch of money and they're like, ‘Yeah, figure it out bud. Sink or swim.’”
Fike is now sober but said that his new lifestyle “cut me off” from his peers in the music industry. He said he wants a mentor who has been through something similar has him.
As for filming Euphoria's third season, which has been delayed for multiple reasons including the writer's strike, Fike said that he's ready to dive back in and that he has “a better dynamic with everybody.”
"I mean, well, I don't know. Almost everybody,” he said, as a reference to co-star and now ex-girlfriend Hunter Schafer. “I think it'll be fine. We're all adults, kind of. I'm trying.”
The pair were first linked romantically in January 2022. Fike confirmed their split in this interview.
Watch the full interview here:
