'Euphoria' Star Reveals Traumatic Brain Injury That Led to Broken Skull
Euphoria's Angus Cloud is sharing the terrifying story behind the scar on the left side of his scalp that's long intrigued fans. The actor, 24, who plays Fezco on the HBO smash hit, recalled his near-death experience in a new interview with Variety, telling the publication of the mark, "It's real. I broke my skull on Friday the 13th."
Back in 2013, Cloud recalled separating from a group of friends walking through his home in downtown Oakland. In the dark, he didn't see the construction pit in front of him and fell into it. "I woke up 12 hours later at the bottom," he shared. "I was trapped. I eventually climbed out after – I don't know how long. It was hella hard to climb out because my skull was broken, but my skin wasn't, so all the bleeding was internal, pressing up against my brain. But they wasn't gonna find me down there. I found myself. Or God found me, whatever you want to call it."
Despite having broken fingers, Cloud pulled himself out of the ditch, which he estimates were about 10 feet deep. "But I didn't feel no pain," he revealed. "I was in survival mode, you feel me?" Once out of the pit, Cloud took the bus to his mom's house, despite having blurred vision. "Because I was a kid! I was 14 or 15. She thought I was on drugs, 'cause my pupils was hella dilated," he said. "I was trying to tell her what happened, but I could only start a sentence – I couldn't finish it. So I was like, 'I'm just gonna go sleep in my bed.'"
Luckily, his mom didn't let him go to bed. "I would have died," Cloud said. "She gave me some water, and I started throwing up hella mouthfuls of crimson red blood. S— was crazy. So then my mama took me to the children's hospital, and they saved my life. That's what the scar's from. They cut my head open, they put some screws and a plate over where I broke my skull and – s-, sealed me back up, and that was that."
Five days in the ICU "loaded off morphine" and then a few more in different care units had Cloud stable enough to go home. "It was damn near like nothing really happened. I'm so blessed to just have minor brain damage," he reflected. "You know, it's so minor it ain't even really worth speaking about."