Petra Collins, a photographer and filmmaker, well known for her distinctive aesthetics, has accused Euphoria creator Sam Levinson of stealing her ideas for the series.
The photographer, who rose to popularity while shooting for Rookie Mag, is famous for her hazy dream-like style. Fans of Zendaya’s show may find similarities between her trademark and the direction of Euphoria.
Petra Collins has stated that she worked on Euphoria for a short time before being fired. She claims the show’s runner continued to use her ideas without giving her credit.
In an interview, she said, “I mean it happens to me so many times in my career, but not on a scale like that. It was so intense to me, because this is the aesthetic that I built all my life, and now I have to change it, ’cause it enters the mainstream, and it’s been taken away from me. The worst thing was when people were unknowingly saying this show likes your photos.”
Petra Collins stated how she got involved in the HBO show Euphoria in a recent interview with the Hungarian publication PUNKT. “The reason I moved to LA was because Sam Levinson reached out to my agency and told me: ‘I wrote a show based on your photos. Will you direct it?'”
Petra stated that she worked on Euphoria for 5 months and even assisted with casting. HBO fired her at the last minute because she was “too young.”
Collins thought her ideas for the series would be scrapped when she was removed. “I was so naive — they’ll just do another one. So it was fine, I learned a lot, it was interesting.”
When the series debuted in 2019, she was surprised to see that they had kept her vision. She also added, “The worst thing was when people would unknowingly say this show looks like your photos.”
Petra Collins also said to Punkt she “had to change my style because of Euphoria. Lots of people started to take photos in that style and I haven’t felt any more as mine and I felt disconnected from that. I need to find myself again, cause I didn’t resonate with this anymore.”