It’s been over two years since we last saw a new episode of Euphoria, and while fans are eagerly awaiting Season 3, so is cast member Nika King—albeit for her own, very personal reasons.
“Don’t ask me [when Season 3 is coming out]. I don’t fucking know. Don’t ask me, I don’t know,” she said during a recent stand-up show, in a clip posted to her TikTok account on Sunday. “People are like, ‘We need Season 3,’ and I’m like, bitch, I need Season 3! I haven’t paid my rent in six months.”
For the HBO show’s first two seasons, King played Leslie Bennett, mom to Zendaya’s character, Rue. King joked that Zendaya, who’s currently promoting her new film Dune: Part Two, was holding up the third season of the show.
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“And Zendaya’s over in Paris at Fashion Week. I’m like, ‘Bitch, come home! I need you. Mama needs you.’”
@iamnikaking Pkease stop asking me about s3 #euphoria #hbo #zendaya #ruemamawildin ♬ original sound - iamnikaking
King also admitted on stage that she expected to book more acting jobs after being part of the Emmy-winning series, but that hasn’t been the case.
“I haven’t booked nothing since Euphoria. This is some bullshit,” King said. “I thought my career was on the rise after Euphoria. I thought I was good. It don’t work that way.”
“I called Taraji, she was like, ‘Bitch, get used to it,’” King concluded, referencing Taraji P. Henson, who tearfully admitted last year that she was considering quitting acting because of the unfair treatment she and other Black women have received in Hollywood. The Empire actress said at the time, “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost. I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to King for comment.
Despite her comedic take on the situation, King has said in the past that playing the role of Leslie, the mother to an addict, is close to her heart because of her own childhood.
“For me, home was not a safe place,” she said last year at a mental health and recovery event at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. The actress elaborated that because she’d grown up with a mother who struggled with substance abuse, she was “born to play this role.”
