Louis Tomlinson took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce that he never approved the animated sex scene between him and fellow One Direction star Harry Styles portrayed in “Euphoria.”
In the HBO drama’s most recent episode, which aired last Sunday, the character Kat Hernandez writes a fan-fiction about the boyband members, titled “Larry Stylinson,” which is depicted through an animated sequence that shows Styles performing a sex act on Tomlinson.
After a fan noted on Twitter that Styles was close with many of those involved with the show, and was most likely aware of his illustrated cameo, she went on to say, “…u can just TELL louis’ not gonna like it.” Tomlinson responded, saying, “I can categorically say that I was not contacted nor did I approve it.”
After Sunday’s episode, Barbie Ferreira, a plus-size model and actress who plays Kat in the show, posted an Instagram photo on Monday of her squatting next to a life-size cardboard cut-out of Styles. “Tonight’s episode of @euphoria without context,” she wrote. The photo was met with outrage, with many commenting their criticism before Tomlinson even confirmed their lack of transparency on Twitter.
“this is so disrespectful u guys should feel terrible to even mention their names…wow,” one user wrote.
Another said: “This is so disrespectful please delete that scene.”
Contentious themes are a staple of the new series, which follows 17 year-old Rue, a drug addict fresh from rehab, and her sexually promiscuous high school friends. However, the Tomlinson-Styles sequences marks the first scene to draw such widespread criticism.
Ahead of its premiere, Sydney Sweeney, who plays Cassie, spoke to Variety about the show’s controversial scenes, saying, “I really hope people keep an open mind when they watch it and they take in everything we have to show them.”