Dominic Fike Was High on Shrooms at His 'Euphoria' Audition

As we all know, the 26-year-old actor and musician shot to fame after joining the cast of HBO's smash-hit series Euphoria, in which he plays Elliot, a friend of lead characters Rue and Jules who battles his substance usage throughout season two. But in an unfortunate coincidence, Fike was apparently struggling with his own addiction at the time, which he said almost cost him the big role.

In a new interview with GQ, Fike revealed he'd been through multiple rounds of auditions when he was asked to do a chemistry table read with cast member Barbie Ferreira in front of showrunner Sam Levinson. According to him, it was the final step of the lengthy process and in an attempt to channel Elliot, he decided to take a bunch of shrooms for his break-or-make moment, to less than great results.

“I started peaking right when me and Barbie were reading,” he said, explaining that he could barely read the script with all the letters moving around and even imagined that Levinson was in a dress.

“I looked at him and I was like, 'Are you wearing a dress right now?,'" Fike recalled. "It was crazy. I started making fun of everybody in the room.”

Needless to say, Fike went on to receive a call from his agents shortly thereafter, who "were like, 'What. The. Fuck'” before telling him he lost the part.

As the star went on to explain, he was "heavily addicted to so many drugs" at that point, partially because he was overwhelmed by "trying to make a fucking album in the midst of that much pressure, the drugs, my family being insane and me being insane."

Saying that it all felt "impossible," Fike eventually ended up going to rehab in the spring of 2020, which led the casting directors to reach back out and give him the role.

In terms of his music though, Fike is also doing pretty well coming off the 2020 release of his debut studio album What Could Possibly Go Wrong, which charted in multiple countries. And though he still wishes he "could have been more proud" of the record, Fike ended the anecdote on a positive note, adding that “whatever happened was cool."

Read GQ's profile on Fike here.

Photo via Getty / Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic