‘Euphoria’ Actors Tristan and Tyler Timmons Address Show’s Controversial Themes

Euphoria has given viewers plenty to talk about this summer. Since its premiere earlier this year, the HBO drama series has been at the center of controversy due to its mature and dark portrayal of teenage subject matters, including addiction, sex and trauma.

Critics of the show have said that Euphoria portrays high school life in an exploitative manner, attracting young viewers who might be influenced by the show’s dark storytelling. Actors Tristan and Tyler Timmons, who play twin brothers Troy and Roy McKay on the show, told PopCulture.com shining a spotlight on these subject matters is “important.”

“It’s needed,” Tristan told PopCulture.com about the show exploring the darker side of modern teenage life. “High school is (usually) portrayed as some type of sweet place that like nothing should be wrong, nothing goes wrong… And a lot of kids get to high school and expect it to be just like that when in reality it’s nothing like that at all.”

He added that the show explores issues that this generation deals with relating to “relationships, social media” and drugs in a way that many young viewers might be experiencing in real life.

“It really can show kids, you know, ‘you’re not the only one that’s going through some trouble in high school,’” Tristan said.

As some of the youngest members of the cast, the actors are set to return to high school for their senior year in the fall. Tristan said they experienced some changes in their lives after appearing on Black Panther last year, but cannot imagine what it will be like to go back to school after Euphoria.

“They’ve seen us leaving constantly because we left like literally every three weeks to go to L.A. to shoot. But they didn’t know what we were leaving for,” Tyler said. “We never even told anybody what the project was until, you know, it was time for it to air. So, they just found out like everybody else so it’s going to be very interesting when we return to school.”

Despite the controversy, Euphoria has become one of HBO’s biggest hits this year. The series was recently renewed for Season 2, which the twins revealed to be a big moment for them.

“We were actually at VidCon in L.A. and my mom called like, ‘Did you see?’” Tyler recalled of finding out the news. “I went on social media and it’s everywhere. Everybody texting me like, ‘season two got picked up’ and everybody so happy and it was amazing. We were like energetic jumping around like that’s crazy.”

Euphoria airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO. Fans can also check out the Timmons twins on their popular YouTube channel, TRVP Twinz.