#JULES IN EUPHORIA SERIES#

“It made me feel sexy and it made me feel desirable,” said Rain Valdez, a transgender actress, producer, and creator of the web series “Razor Tongue.” “ is the object of desire for many of the characters in the show, which never happens for trans characters in any show or film. Hunter Schafer and Zendaya in “Euphoria” Eddy Chen/HBO Whatever lengths Levinson went to in order to mitigate his perspective (and he consulted transgender sensitivity trainer and actor Scott Turner Schofield extensively) as creator, producer, writer, and director of the series, there’s no denying that “Euphoria” employs his gaze – and it has been met with acclaim. (Jill Soloway, Ryan Murphy, and Steven Canals, respectively.) That makes “Euphoria” the first trans show to employ a straight male gaze, the term coined by Laura Mulvey and popularized by Soloway. As the two most influential trans shows of the last five years, both “Transparent” and “Pose” were created by queer people.

#JULES IN EUPHORIA TV#

“Euphoria” was created by Sam Levinson by all accounts a straight, cisgender, white guy who somehow made one of the most sexually fluid TV shows ever produced by Hollywood. (In addition to drug addiction, the complexity of sexual relationships in 2019, explored at all angles with a kind of frenetic nihilism, is one of the show’s major themes.) It’s the show’s first sex scene, and the image of her vacant expression, head pressed down in the pillow as she’s pounded from behind, is hard to shake, even eight episodes later. In her first major scene in the show’s pilot, Jules arrives at a roadside motel - nervous, but excited - to meet a hot daddy for a Grindr hook-up that soon becomes chillingly impersonal. And one million people are watching.ĭrugs, Fraud, Whistleblowers, and the Safdies: Inside the 22-Year Journey of HBO’s Bombshell Miniseries ‘Telemarketers’ That makes “Euphoria” the first onscreen depiction of a trans-amorous male gaze. Played by newcomer Hunter Schafer in what will surely become a career-launching performance, everyone on the show - the daddy, the walking embodiment of toxic masculinity, the tomboy protagonist, her confident femme rival - wants Jules.

Whether she’s biking giddily through an orchard or reciting Shakespeare in a pool without smudging her killer eye make-up, it’s hard not to fall in love with her. Newly sober at 16 after an overdose that nearly tore her family apart, Rue has found the one thing that can rival drugs for her affection: Jules.Įmanating a manic pixie trans girl energy unlike anything seen onscreen before, Jules floats magically through every frame in which she appears. As the series’ endlessly compelling protagonist, Rue narrates the events of the show in a sleepy voiceover that is equal parts profoundly intimate and archly blasé.

And chances are, most viewers haven’t either. “I’ve never met anyone in my entire life like Jules,” says Rue, the tomboy drug addict played by Zendaya on “ Euphoria,” HBO’s provocative teen-drama-for-adults and the network’s newest hit of the summer.

Jules in euphoria