By Deepa Lakshmin
When Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney) crashed her school’s play in the explosive season 2 finale of HBO’s Euphoria, the students in the audience were on the edge of their seats — and so were the real-life viewers watching the HBO drama at home. What unfolded next was pure chaos: Cassie and Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) screamed, slapped, chased, and clawed at each other onstage to hash out how their friendship had fallen apart thanks in part to their toxic entanglements with Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi). Oof.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this public brawl snagged the Best Fight award on Sunday night (June 5) at the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards in Santa Monica, where Sweeney accepted a Golden Popcorn at Barker Hangar. Cassie vs. Maddy won out against Black Widow’s Black Widow vs. Widows, Free Guy’s Guy vs. Dude, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ bus fight, and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s end battle.
“I wish Alexa was here so that she could thank the amazing fans that we have, because you all are so incredible,” Sweeney said. “But I have to be honest, Maddie might have gotten the last punch, but Cassie has never, ever been happier.”
As Euphoria fans surely remember, this last line is a reference to Cassie’s now-iconic line — “I have never, ever been happier” — that she says in the girls’ bathroom while hysterically crying about her relationship with Nate. And let’s not forget Maddy’s fan-favorite line that’s now turned into an inescapable TikTok sound: “Wait, is this fucking play about us?”
Turns out, Cassie’s sister and playwright Lexi (Maude Apatow) penned the script based on her family and friends’ real lives. Cassie and Maddy weren’t having it, but the rest of the audience loved the performance’s messy turn, with Rue Bennett (Zendaya) and Jules Vaughn (Hunter Schafer) cheering for more. And so, drama be damned, the show went on
The 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards are airing live from the Barker Hangar in L.A. right now on MTV, with the Movie & TV Awards: UNSCRIPTED to follow. Find all the winners here.
Tagged: TV