‘Euphoria’ Star Priscilla Delgado Breaks Down Angel’s Tragic Tale at the Silver Slipper

Euphoria‘s latest episode introduced viewers to a new tragic figure in the HBO drama with the episode “America My Dream,” as Rue (Zendaya) found herself immersed in the world of Alamo’s (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) strip club, the Silver Slipper. Warning: Spoilers for Euphoria Season 3 Episode 2 ahead!

Along the way, Rue strikes up a bond with Angel (Priscilla Delgado), a dancer who begins a downward spiral as her friend Tish (Emma Kotos) remains missing. Unbeknownst to Angel, Tish is the girl who overdosed on fentanyl in the previous episode, an accident from a mixed batch of drugs delivered from Laurie by Rue. While Alamo and his crew gaslight Angel by falsely answering her questions about Tish’s whereabouts, Rue ultimately tells her the truth that Tish is dead.

This only pushed Angel further down in her descending spiral until the only answer was rehab. The problem? Rehab was a place Alamo sent any and all of his girls to get help, but it’s unclear what that entails behind closed doors. Below, Delgado opens up about portraying the tragic figure of Angel, working opposite Zendaya, and shining a light on women in Angel’s position.

How did your role as Angel come about, and how did it feel to shine a light on a woman going through the circumstances she is going through? 

Priscilla Delgado: It feels like such an enormous privilege for me to be able to be in that space and given the opportunity to just explore so deeply. I was in Hawaii at the time, in a very humble moment, and I didn’t know at first that we were talking about Euphoria. It was under [the name] LA Nights. I remember when the file came in, as soon as I knew that we were actually talking about Euphoria, it really showed that the material was well written, and it has depth when reading it. I remember auditioning for two or three roles, but I fell in love immediately with Angel. I knew it was gonna be a very interesting moment to explore her circumstances, her world, her past experiences, and to bring her to life eventually.

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Did you have to go through any special training to do the dancing required in the Silver Slipper strip club? 

It was true. I had to play a strip club dancer, and I’ve never been to a strip club. So I really had to get into the understanding of that world that was so foreign to me. I remember sneaking into some strip clubs for the first time, witnessing the whole thing, and really trying to understand what she was going through, knowing all her weaknesses and all her flaws, and try to just paint her as human as I could, create some empathy for her and doing the exercise of understanding why she end up she ends up in the place that she ends up in.

Angel really leans on Rue as she worries about her friend Tish. We see photos of different girls who have presumably gone missing, in addition to Tish. How does Angel feel when she learns she’s been lied to and Rue confesses that Tish died of an overdose? 

When you find yourself in those types of atmospheres, you always have to be on alert. It’s honestly not the most sane world that you could just like be in, so if there’s not something bad happening, you’re expecting it, and I feel that’s a present feeling that she always carries. In the world that she finds herself in, it’s really hard to trust anybody in any way, you know? It is a pity that, probably the only person she can trust or just find a little love and [comfort in] fades, she’s just expecting the devil. That makes her go into a spiral and sink into the [deepest depths of hell].

On the ride to rehab, Angel remarks to Rue about how many girls go missing in California. Is she saying that because she fears something will happen to her as she attempts to get treatment? We do see someone is watching them outside of the rehab. 

I think that she has this bad feeling and this thought that something bad is gonna happen to her. Eventually, she doesn’t have any other choice because I feel like that’s the only person who might be worrying for her. And she’s in such a vulnerable situation that she has no other choice than to let it go, no whatever she ends up in. I think she has always felt that sensation of this devil under the soil,  attracting the evil. That’s one of the phrases that she says, and that’s something that’s been present along her journey.

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Is Angel’s draw to Rue a distraction to keep her mind off missing Tish, or is there a genuine connection? 

I think she’s just someone who wants to have fun, but I think she’s just someone desperately seeking any form or type of affection or love. That being said, I don’t know if she’s expecting Rue to be the love of her life. Probably not. She wants to have some fun, but we’re talking about somebody who has a lot of issues, a lot of holes that need to be filled. Overall, she’s just desperately trying to fill them along her journey.

The drop-off at rehab is emotional. How was it approaching that scene, considering Rue has been in a similar position as Angel? 

There was one trigger that day, which was a conversation with Sam, that grounded me a lot because he told me that he once found himself in a place like that, and that gave me a shot of reality in that moment. It really made me think about the whole thing and what it feels like to find yourself in that place, not knowing what’s going to happen, not knowing if you’re gonna come out in a healthy place, not knowing if you’re going to survive, not knowing who you’re going to find inside. Those types of comments that I had from Sam really gave me the opportunity to get in the mood and that understanding.

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What was it like getting to work with Zendaya during those scenes together? 

To witness her in life, it was honestly a “pinch me” moment all the time, but you really had to leave that to the side and just keep it present. It was just so easy to react to what she was giving me, and follow the words and the scene. But once you watch, it’s like, wow, she’s just so magnificent, so great, so brilliant in every choice that she makes. I try to look at her as an audience member, but it’s such a pleasure.

What element of Angel helped you get into character the most?

I worked on shaping her for sure, starting from the nails. I had a really clear idea that she had to wear some long squared nails with such bright colors and that would give me the opportunity to be able to start shaping her movement in her hands and when you have some nails as, as, as, when you start wearing nails, it kind of gives you this personality and this attitude that without nails you would never have.

Euphoria, Season 3, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO and HBO Max