Zendaya and Sam Levinson recall “the most beautiful parts” of Angus Cloud while filming Euphoria

On Euphoria, Fezco—a drug dealer played by the late Angus Cloud—was clearly a kind and sensitive soul who suffered a lot but also deeply cared for his friends and family. According to a new report from People, it sounds like Cloud himself was no different.

Tributes from Cloud’s family and friends paint him as a beautiful and empathetic artist who sometimes struggled to bear the weight of the world. “I think he had very deep feelings, and sometimes this world was… he just couldn’t handle it and didn’t want to handle it,” his mother shared. Cloud’s death this past July at 25 years old was recently ruled an accidental overdose due to a combination of methamphetamines, cocaine, fentanyl, and other anxiety medications. Cloud was also mourning his father, who had died just three months before.

Cloud’s Euphoria family is also mourning. “Angus was supposed to die at the end of the first season, but I loved him so f—-ing much,” shared show creator Sam Levinson in his first public statement since the star’s death. “The first thing I noticed about him was he had those Paul Newman eyes… and his audition tape where he said that his name was Angus Cloud and he’s ‘five foot 12.’ It killed me. He was perfect.”

Levinson also described early line readings from the actor—who was plucked off the street by a casting director—as feeling “like laughter.” “He had such a unique cadence, humor and sort of pathos to him. There was something unusual and empathetic. His lack of training was a benefit because he wouldn’t overthink,” he said.

Levinson, who partly modeled the show around his own experience with addiction, tried hard to help Cloud get sober. He went as far as to stage multiple interventions and encouraged HBO to pay for a 30-day in-patient program for the actor during the show’s second season. Apparently, Cloud threw on Rue’s signature red hoodie for one of those interventions, an art-imitating-life moment the two men bonded over on the drive.

“You can’t give up on people. I wasn’t going to let anyone give up on him,” Levinson said, sharing that—again—he couldn’t bear to let Cloud go after his planned death in the second season finale and decided to kill off his younger brother (played by Javon Walton) instead. “He’s too special. It doesn’t matter what the f—-ing story is,” he admitted.

Euphoria star Zendaya also shared some thoughts on Cloud, whose character shared an intense bond with his. “He felt like a little brother instantly; ironic because we played characters with the exact opposite dynamic,” she said. “I’m lucky because I got to experience the most beautiful parts of him. I got to watch him create and I got to watch him discover the fact that he was an actor. A damn good one at that, and as many times as I would tell him or compliment his performance, I don’t think he ever truly believed it.”