Eric Dane on How He Prepared for Cal’s Intense Euphoria

Euphoria has a reputation for doing the most. It's depiction of teen angst is dialed up to 11, causing more than a few parents watching the show to panic just a little. But the messiest shenanigans of Season 2, Episode 4 didn't come from the show's young ensemble, but from one of their parents. Cal (played by Eric Dane) has long been the alpha dog of his community, but his machismo hides a lifelong struggle with his sexuality, which manifests as hook-ups with young gay men and trans women that he secretly films. His toxic masculinity has metastasized into his son Nate (Jacob Elordi), whose even more violent tendencies are rooted in his own struggles with sexual insecurity. This season, as Cal unravels on his warpath to retrieve a tape of his night with Jules (Hunter Schafer), the trans high school girl his son is secretly in love with, we're given a glimpse into his own youth in flashbacks. The summer before college, he and his best friend Derek begin to explore their feelings with each other, but are cut short when Cal's then-girlfriend Marsha announces that she's pregnant. Cal and Derek spend a night at a gay bar, and it's the only time we see Cal unfettered, unburdened, and free. When present-day Cal returns to the bar during a bender, we learn he hasn't stepped foot back into a space where he can openly be himself for nearly 25 years. Dane read those flashbacks in the script, and then Euphoria creator Sam Levinson played him some footage from those scenes to help root adult Cal in his younger self. "I definitely wanted to match the physicality of the old Cal in that moment where he's remembering Derek so vividly [when he revisits the gay bar] that he actually sees him," Dane says. "At the same time, I'm kind of doing my own thing. Cal's a different guy than he was when he was 17 years old. So I was endeavoring to find the similarities between the different Cals in those moments."

Cal's arc hits a crescendo when he arrives home drunk in the middle of the night, promptly pees onto the hardwood floor, and proceeds to unload a lifetime of internalized trauma onto his wife and son. Much of it with his penis still out; the silent fifth member of the scene. The scene is long and devastating, as Cal vacillates between casual cruelty and delivering long-overdue truths. Dane bounces between tragedy and dark comedy, self-hatred and self-acceptance, and deep-cutting reads on not only his own secrets but those of his family. It's like watching an exorcism, but performed in the foyer of a McMansion. "My first thought when I read the script was, I better start working on this right now! Because it's a lot of words," he says. "But I thought it made sense. I mean, you know, Cal is a deeply conflicted character. And he's been living this double-life for the better part of his adulthood. At some point, he's going to reach his breaking point." Men's Health talked to Dane about walking on a knife's edge for the scene, grappling with the expectations we have of masculinity in his own life, and the release of emotional unburdening yourself with you penis out.

The absurdity of the circumstances are right at the top of the scene—walking in and peeing on the floor of the foyer. Finding the absurdity and the hilarity in that moment was super liberating. And it really set a tone that allowed the character to kind of breathe and be honest. I mean, look, Cal then tells Nate that his biggest regret is him. I don't think Cal wishes Nate wasn't born. I think what he’s saying is that he regrets the way he parented Nate. The adage “the truth hurts,” might apply here, but I think in some way, it could be the beginning of the healing process.