Hunter Schafer Explains Why She’s “Intentional” About Not Only Taking Trans Roles: “I Just Want To Be A Girl And Move On”

Hunter Schafer got her start in Euphoria playing Jules Vaughn, a trans high school student and love interest to Zendaya‘s character, Rue. But the actress has since been intentional in making sure that her identity as a trans person does not define her career.

“It’s a privilege, but it’s been very intentional,” she told GQ. “I’ve gotten offered tons of trans roles, and I just don’t want to do it. I don’t want to talk about it.”

The actress explained her reasoning, saying, “I know for a fact that I’m one of the most famous trans people in media right now, and I do feel a sense of responsibility, and maybe a little bit of guilt, for not being more of a spokesperson. But ultimately, I really do believe that not making it the centerpiece to what I’m doing will allow me to get further. And I think getting further and doing awesome shit, in the interest of ‘the movement,’ will be way more helpful than talking about it all the time.”

In line with this goal, Schafer even admitted that she sometimes avoids saying “trans” at all during interviews.

“As soon as I say it, it gets blastoff,” she said. “It took a while to learn that and it also took a while to learn that I don’t want to be [reduced to] that, and I find it ultimately demeaning to me and what I want to do.”

Schafer confessed that she was “sick of talking about it.”

“I worked so hard to get to where I am, past these really hard points in my transition, and now I just want to be a girl and finally move on,” she stated.

But the actress fondly reflected on her role in Euphoria, which she landed when she was just 18 years old.

“She’s deeply intertwined with who I am as a person and who I was at that age,” she said of her character, Jules. “She feels like an artifact of younger me.” 

For now, she is beginning to branch out from Euphoria and launch a new career in film. She recently starred in The Hunger Games prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Her next feature, Cuckoo, premieres May 3.

“Now that I’ve figured out the craft of acting and it’s not this terrifying thing that I feel like I’ve been thrown into, I get it,” Schafer said. “I can really find some levity and some joy in it.”