Alanna Ubach on Suze’s ‘Euphoria’ Journey (2024)

The Season 2 finale of Euphoria contained the full spectrum of human emotions, and all of them seemed to be captured on Suze Howard’s face as she watched her daughter Lexi’s (Maude Apatow) tour de force production of Our Life. Her jaw-drops and woos capped off a banner season for the quintessential “I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom” played by Alanna Ubach, whose role blossomed along with that of her other on-screen daughter, the embattled Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). On a show in which some parents are nonexistent and others are monstrous, Ubach infuses Suze with complexity: Yes, she’s the mom who boozes with her teen daughters at a birthday party (“Any of you snitches to your parents about this, your days at the Howard House are finito burrito”), but she also shares a pivotal, heart-rending scene with an on-the-run Rue (Zendaya).

Vogue spoke to Ubach about Suze’s second-season journey, exorcising Cassie, her “Easter egg” career, and the real-life innocence of the Euphoria cast.

Vogue: So, I binged the entire series of Euphoria in recent weeks—

Alanna Ubach: Oh my gosh, you masoch*st!

Beyond all the badly behaving teens, we got so much more of Suze this season.

Well, Sydney Sweeney’s character, Cassie, has a much bigger arc this season and she has to have a home to go to sleep in [laughs]. I think [our relationship] is established in the first season, when she comes to me when she gets pregnant. Isn’t that interesting? Most girls, when I was a teenager, if they were ever in trouble in that regard, they would go to a friend or a big sister. But she came to me and there’s something to be said about that, in spite of the fact that Suze seems like a flaky mom. You peel all of the layers and she actually is quite caring. The way I saw it is, as a single mom, she’s sort of [befriended] Cassie and that tends to happen in single-parent households—I’m so therapy-ed out, which is why I’m saying this. It’s no wonder that Suze has a bigger storyline in the second season. It’s because her daughter is going through so much.

One of my favorite scenes this season—especially as it relates to Suze—is when Cassie is trying to defend herself in front of her mother, screaming that Maddy and Nate weren’t together, and Suze deadpans: “I really don’t think that’s an airtight defense.” And eventually you say, “She needs a f*ckin’ exorcism!” How did you unpack that scene—was Suze the only person who could speak the truth to Cassie?

Well, that scene was actually rewritten the night before. I was not watching my Millionaire Matchmaker [initially]. Here’s this woman who probably only gets Saturdays to herself because she’s hoping her kids are at their boyfriends’ houses, or the mall. It is the only time when she can day-drink and enjoy her favorite television shows, and she has this very promiscuous daughter on the verge of a nervous breakdown. As crazy as Suze is, there’s a side of her that’s quite wise and she knows these kids are gonna figure it out one way or another, but most importantly, My Saturday is being ruined. Get the hell out of here.

Do you know why was it rewritten?

I think Sam Levinson gave Suze more of a life. Sam doesn’t stop painting, so he probably added funnier dialogue. I think it just adds a little bit of lightness to the situation, because, my God, [Cassie’s] in so much pain and in so much trouble, and she has no one to turn to.

Then you’re in the audience during Our Life, looking like you’re feeling this enormous pride for Lexi. How does Suze look at the balance between her two daughters?

There’s that wonderful saying, “You are only as happy as your saddest child.” Lexi is someone I don’t have to worry about, thank God. But Cassie, I’m sure, reminds me of how I [Suze] was as a young girl and I see myself in her and once she gets histrionic, I suddenly get histrionic. You can’t help it. I have a four-year-old and he thinks he’s a teenager and anytime he’s sad or mad about someone not talking to him at his preschool, I’m depressed the entire day, too.

How does parenting a four-year-old—and being a mom in real life—impact your performance?

I don’t know if you ever went through this, Michelle, but when I was pregnant, I started remembering all of the mothers that I once knew growing up. Oh, that woman was considered the big sister and she was the one who allowed everyone to get drunk at her house. And then you had the really strict Catholic parent that everyone was afraid of. And you think to yourself, Which parent do I wanna be? I’m gonna cherrypick everything that I loved from all of those mothers. Suze is the last mother I wanna be, because in some ways she’s clueless, as loving as she is. I find her quite limited, unfortunately.

What was Suze’s internal, emotional journey, watching Lexi’s play?

To finally discover, for the first time, how brilliant your child is. I can only imagine that feeling a mother would have watching, let’s say, Natalia Makarova on stage, or the parents of Justin Bieber, when you see that kid pick up the guitar for the first time and they’re just naturally gifted.

What did you make of Austin Abrams’s (Ethan’s) performance of you in the play within the show? Did you talk about it with him beforehand?

God love that boy. He’s exceptionally Method. He’s my kind of actor. Apparently, he watched a lot of footage of me before [laughs]. When I saw him walking down the hallway in that wig and in that high push-up bra with his glass of wine in his hand—and I always made sure that ice cubes were in my fake prop glass of wine—I about lost it. I fell off my chair. They just nailed it, obviously, hair and makeup and wardrobe, but then he did have that overall laissez faire, “anything goes” air about him. He was fantastic. What a trooper. I mean, he must have done at least 763,000 takes. The stamina of these kids is like nothing I’ve ever seen before and I’ve been doing this for decades.

Why is the ice in Suze’s wine glass so important?

Any time I see ice in someone’s wine, I think they were too impatient to let it cool in the fridge. They got it off the shelf and they went home and immediately opened it. They’re in that much of a rush.

What is the dynamic like behind the scenes between the parents of Euphoria, like you, and the “kids” in the cast?

When I was a child first starting out, it was the late-’80s and there was a jadedness to many of my contemporaries. We were very worldly and co*cky. It must be the casting; it’s the brilliance of Mary Vernieu and Sam Levinson that they managed to find these children that have bottomless talent, but at the end of the day, they are quite innocent. You meet them in person and think, Oh, their parents did an amazing job raising these kids. Even Maude Apatow, whose mother and father are quite well-known, and she’s taken over the family business, there is an innocence to her. It’s so impressive to see this in actors in their 20s who are experiencing history being made as far as pop culture is concerned. They’re so well-mannered and sweet and humble, and they’re all about the work. I can’t believe Zendaya—on days she doesn’t work, she will come by the set just to cheer us on.

How was Suze initially pitched to you?

Originally, I was up for Zendaya’s mother, but Zendaya hadn’t been cast yet. Every actress in town was prepping [for that part]. And then there was a rumor going around that Zendaya was going to be cast as the lead, and I thought, Well, I don’t have a chance being cast as Zendaya’s mother. First of all, I’m three-feet-four. That won’t be believable unless she was adopted. So I started reading the script and I thought, Oh, who is this drunk mom, Suze, who sits at the table and asks Zendaya questions? She reminded me of one my best friend’s mothers growing up, Linda Morales. Linda Morales was everyone’s best friend. She was so likable and sweet and loving and she acted like a big sister. She did not act like an authority figure. Linda, in heaven, if you’re watching, Suze is based on you.

There’s this crotchety narrative around Euphoria sometimes, where people say, “Where are the parents? How are they letting these kids run wild?” How do you respond to that?

How can I explain this? Sam writes these characters to be as intelligent as they can possibly be. All of these kids, from Ashtray to Maddy, they are their smartest selves. And if you’re that clever away from home, you’re gonna do whatever you can at home, in front of your parents, so that you can get away with all of those things. They’re sophisticated because that is this generation. This generation has information in their fingertips at any given moment, whether it’s right or wrong, and that’s what their parents are competing with. How could you possibly compete with Google or TikTok or Instagram or Snapchat? It’s impossible.

Were you a bad, Euphoria-style teen or did you behave?

You know, I was a child actor, so I was just a clueless dork, to be honest [laughs]. I was a real geek.

Euphoria is making people draw all of these connections in your career: They’re flipping out that you were Elle Woods’s sorority sister in Legally Blonde and that you voiced Mamá Imelda in Coco.

I was joking with my husband last night: I said, “I’m kind of bored right now. Why don’t you come with me to the mall, and we’ll go up and down the escalators to see if the teenagers recognize me? I’m gonna milk these 15 minutes for all they’re worth!” [Laughs.] When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you think that every show you’re on and every pilot you do is gonna be the biggest thing ever, and I’ve been disappointed many a time. So for this to be happening now, at my age, I think is hysterical and fantastic. Years ago, in my 20s, I told my manager, “I wanna have an Easter egg career where people can’t quite pinpoint where they’ve seen me before, but I’d like to be unrecognizable in everything I do,” and she said, “This is gonna be a really hard mountain to climb.” To want be a character actor, it’s risky, because if you’re not trying to be the lead in anything, you have to save your money. It really is a test of one’s patience.

As more people are doing deep-dives into your career, they’re also realizing that you’re Latina.

Yes, I am. My father’s Puerto Rican and my mother’s Mexican, sí. There is this one lovely girl on TikTok who put the pieces together and it had hundreds of thousands of views. She said, “Wait, fun fact, did you know Suze on Euphoria is Mamá Imelda and the Cuban maid in Meet the Fockers?” I said, “Oh my God, these kids really do their homework.” A lot of people have a hard time believing that I am a Latina and I always say, “Look, Mexico is huge, and there’s a big European population in Mexico. Go to Mexico City—a lot of people look like me out there, I promise.” Once I start speaking Spanish, then everyone is convinced, finally.

Did I see that you’re going to do the next Legally Blonde sequel? Is that happening?

This is what I know: Mindy Kaling is working on a draft, and I think she’s going back and forth with Reese [Witherspoon] on notes here and there. I really don’t know. There was this buzz about it about a year ago, and then it sort of fizzled out and I’m not quite sure where it stands right now, given the fact that Reese’s schedule is so unpredictable. It’s hard to pin someone like Reese down for a couple of months, in all honesty. She’s become bigger than the movie.

Are you open to doing it?

Oh my gosh, yes. Are you kidding me? That would be so much fun.

Now that we’ve gotten more of Suze, what are your hopes and dreams for her in Season 3?

It’s all up to that genius brain of Sam Levinson’s. Who the hell knows? I am game for anything.

This interview has been edited and condensed.