Dominic Fike almost lost his role as Elliot on Euphoria due to his drug usage. The singer, who released his new album Sunburn Friday, July 7, spoke to Apple Music about his struggle with addiction and how it nearly cost him his role on the HBO show.
“I was a drug addict and coming on to a show that’s, you know, mainly about drugs, is very difficult,” Fike told Zane Lowe. “Sam [Levinson], the director and writer, got me a sober coach, somebody to be there all the time. It did not work.”
Fike admitted that he was often high while filming scenes. “I was so fucked up during a lot of that show. It was really bad,” he said, adding his drug use was so persistent that the show “had to” use takes that Fike filmed while high.
Fike did say he was “reprimanded” for his drug use, and a harsher punishment was nearly handed down. “I almost, you know, got kicked off the show,” he said. “They were like, ‘Bro, you cannot be doing this.’”
Last year, Fike spoke to GQ about being high on shrooms when he had his chemistry read with Barbie Ferreira, who played Kat on the show. “I started peaking right when me and Barbie were reading,” he told the outlet, adding that he didn’t land the part at the time.
He also acknowledged that he was “heavily addicted to so many drugs” while he made his last album, What Could Possibly Go Wrong, in 2020. “Trying to make a fucking album in the midst of that much pressure, the drugs, my family being insane, and me being insane, was impossible,” he said.
In the GQ interview, Fike said he felt he would be “perfect for” Euphoria since it took on a lot of issues in his own life. But he admitted that he “was crazy” at the time. “I was really turning it up,” he said. Fike spent time in a rehab center in Antigua in the spring of 2020.
The Euphoria anecdote was part of a 50-minute documentary-style interview with Fike pinned to the release of his new album. His new project —which features songs such as “Think Fast” with Weezer, “Ant Pile,” and “4×4” — marks his first since What Could Possibly Go Wrong.
Fike is set to embark on his Don’t Stare at the Sun tour in mid-July, stopping in cities across the U.S. through the end of August.