Priscilla Delgado has only appeared in one single episode of Euphoria Season 3, but there’s no way you’re not still thinking about her character, Angel.
Rue Bennett (Zendaya) first met (and hooked up with) the vivacious Silver Slipper dancer all the way back in Euphoria Season 3 Episode 2 “America My Dream,” but their relationship soon became far more complex than a simple tryst. Angel was best friends with Tish (Emma Kotos), the stripper who died of a fentanyl overdose in the Season 3 premiere. When Angel begins acting out over her fears for her missing friend, Rue does the noble thing and tells Angel the truth. Unfortunately, learning Tish’s fate sets Angel off the deep end. When Rue tells Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) that the girl needs rehab, he uncharacteristically volunteers to pay for it.
What then follows is a chilling pair of scenes where a pensive Angel first reflects on how many people go missing in the state of California before tearfully begging Rue to promise to return to pick her up from rehab. In Euphoria Season 3 Episode 4 “Kitty Likes To Dance,” Rue overhears that Angel has “run away” from rehab. Her name is scraped off her locker, which is passed along to new girl Kitty (Anna Van Patten).
In just the space of one single episode of Euphoria, Priscilla Delgado repeatedly seizes the scene from movie star costar Zendaya while also presenting a searing portrait of devastation and fear. In my mind, there’s no better performance from a Guest Actress in a Drama Series this year.
Priscilla Delgado hopped on a Zoom call this past Monday to chat with DECIDER about dancing with Bad Bunny in Barcelona, throwing shoes at Zendaya, and how learning Angel’s eventual fate left her so rattled…
DECIDER: I might be mistaken, but were you on stage with Bad Bunny this weekend? I think I saw something about that.
PRISCILLA DELGADO: I was, I was, I was! It was a great opportunity because I still haven’t attended one of his shows. So, yeah, it was in Barcelona and yeah, it ended up happening. And we danced. We danced to the floor. So I was very happy to share with him and be part of that party.
I’ve been personally obsessed with your performance since I saw the episode weeks ago. I thought, you’re so fantastic as Angel. I read in an interview with Spanish Outlet that this gig came to you through the normal audition process, but I’m curious if there’s anything that popped out at you at the page about Angel that you really wanted to bring to life.
You know, as an actor, you sometimes get so many things, so many auditions, so many projects that may or may not be of your interest. I remember right away when I got the material that I saw a very clear opportunity to go deep and investigate. It was a great opportunity. Apart from that sense of street fighter that I got from her, I thought it was really was going to be very fun to play with in terms of physicality and in terms of creating the character of her.
I remember first the first sides that I received, she was talking about the problem of fentanyl and how many people she lost because of that. So I really thought it was a great opportunity to get to know more about the problem. That is a huge, huge thing going on right now. To ultimately empathize with her and understand her and get to know more about her. So I started from the beginning to really get really interested about everything that she was saying and her situation overall.
I love our first introduction to Angel: the lip pop in the mirror, the confidence. She’s doing her job and she’s also flirting with Rue at the same time. What was it like starting our introduction to her like that and what did that tell you about her character?
It was great and I was so happy that she also was going to be able to have a whole arc of people being able to see her shining in that splendid atmosphere. But then, people were also going to see her in the the deepest moment and in the deepest hole, no? So it was very fun to just start imagining her look. From the beginning, I understood that she had to wear some fun and characteristic nails. We started to just, like imagine the hair. I had a whole idea about her aesthetic and her outfits. In collaboration with props and all the fittings that we did, we started to create her and it was very fun. It was a dream overall to collaborate with every department and to really get a good idea of what she was going to be at the end of the day.
One of my favorite little through lines is that when Angel she is upset, she throws shoes. It’s kind of funny. It’s very physical. Rue is the only one who tosses them back. What were those scenes with Zendaya like, just throwing shoes at people?
I think that’s such a Latina thing of throwing shoes. [Giggles] That really comes from like back in the days when your mama’d throw the chunk at you and then hit you on the butt because you behaved bad. I always found it so funny from the very, very beginning that that was her way of showing hate and appreciation, maybe, too, no? But it was so fun. We rehearsed it. A lot of times it was not, as you can imagine, they were not real shoes, but it was so funny just like to throw shoes at her.
There’s a really heartbreaking moment where she’s leaving the voicemail for Tish and it sort of gives this extra depth to the character, the love of her friends. What was like for you to sort of go from the fun Angel to the sorrowful Angel?
It was a natural consequence of the circumstances that she found herself in. Tish was probably one of her few friends or people that may have shown her some appreciation and love. So I guess that was a very important moment for her. The moment where she eventually starts to spiral, that was a important moment, I think, in terms of narrative for her to just like start to break down and break through.
The whole rehab situation is really terrifying the way it’s shot. It almost is like she knows it’s not a real rehab, or at least your performance conveyed that to me. I’m curious why she agrees to go with it and does she have a kind of an understanding of what’s probably going to happen to her?
You know, me as an actor, I wanted to keep it unknown what her destiny was going to be. I remember that last day, I asked Ashley [Levinson], “What is going on? What’s going to happen? What’s actually going to happen after rehab? Where is she going?” And she told me — and I cannot reveal because the last episode, it’s not out yet, no. So I can not spill the tea. But that moment where Ashley actually told me what’s going to happen with her really triggered me a lot and and made me realize where she was going. Something that I decided from the beginning was just to keep it unknown. That kind of made me go into scene and into rehab with full knowledge of where she was going and the moment where she tells Rue that “I’m scared,” and “You promise you’re going to go back to get me,” I sort of did it with that information in mind. That’s why I really was so heartbroken and really present in what was going on. I don’t think she knows where she’s going, but I know that she knows she’s not going to nowhere good. That definitely doesn’t smell like she’s going to a good place.
In this week’s episode, Rue opens the safe and discovers that Alamo has been hoarding the IDs of all of these girls. Earlier in the season, there’s the questions she has for Kitty about whether anyone’s forcing her to do this. What is your understanding about how Angel came to work at the Silver Slipper? Do you have any idea of her backstory and how she came into this line of work?
That’s a very interesting question. I just think she is very young still, but she’s been hustling in the hood since her beginning, knowing that’s what she knows and that’s what she’s all been about. So I think she’s just been from strip club to strip club and her introduction to the nightlife was pretty early, in terms of like as soon as she was able to get into that workplace. I’ve always imagined her as a Latina either from New York or from Miami and just traveling wherever money and opportunity is. And I guess she eventually found herself in that strip club in the middle of the Californian desert.
You have so many great scenes with with Zendaya. I’m curious what it was like working with her in both the emotional and the intimate sense.
It was super easy. Once you are on set, you have to just be rigorous with the material. You just really have to forget that you’re in front of this huge superstar. So we just went straight into it, to play with it and to keep it real. And it was really easy. She’s just the greatest. So it was just me reacting to what she was giving me. So it was a splendid experience, just like getting to know her and look her in her eyes.
Yeah. It just occurred to me that this season of Euphoria deals a lot with good and evil and religion. Do you feel that there was some deeper meaning behind your character’s name being Angel?
For sure, for sure. First, when I was given all her information, I could have never thought about a better name to her. How she always has evil so present,in her life overall. I loved that name from the very beginning. And I thought it was really, really beautiful. Beautifully placed.
Before I let you go, what was your favorite part of the process of working on Euphoria? Was there certain scene that you loved, a certain costar? I’m just curious, what is your happiest memory from the whole process overall?
Overall, Sam is somebody who pushes and eventually gets the best of you and something that you may know or may not know that you had, he’s able to get it. So just being able to work with him and just be at the entire disposal of his vision and being able to be part of such a collaborative process and being able to go so deep in terms of investigation and in terms of empathizing with with the circumstances of somebody like Angel, who may be someone real out there in the world. The whole process has been a blast. But overall, just working with Sam and being able to get his directions and be part of his universe.
The Euphoria series finale comes out this Sunday, May 31 at 9 PM ET on HBO and HBO Max.
This interview has been edited and formatted for clarity.