Euphoria icon Hunter Schafer has opened up about her experience with depression, calling the hit show a “lifeline” during the darkest moments.
The 23-year-old breakout star was speaking to i-D Magazine when she revealed that the series special, “F**k Anyone Who’s Not A Sea Blob”, which served as a bridge between the first two seasons, and saw Jules during a therapy session, helped get her through the “worst depression” she’s ever experienced.
“I feel like it really just gave us room to go deeper into her mind and her subconscious and her headspace,” Hunter said of the episode, which she co-wrote and co-produced.
“I was in a very f**king raw place, you know, it was the summer of 2020,” she recalled. “Probably coming out of the worst depression I’ve ever had, and needing somewhere to put all of that energy. When I say that episode really became a lifeline, I mean it.”
Hunter went on to say that the episode was, in part, meant to explore “a 17-year-old trans girl, still figuring out who she is, and debating queerness within her head — what that means for her as a trans person.”
“All of these new new parts of herself that she’s still uncovering, all intersect and create one big mess that she’s trying to untangle, or find some sense within.”
Discussing her thoughts writing the episode, Hunter said: “This is a really good opportunity to put some shit on TV that has not been on TV as far as like, what’s actually going on in young trans people’s heads beyond ‘Oh, I’m scared what people are gonna think because I’m trans.’ Like, real, spiritual, philosophical… Who am I? What does this all mean?”
Euphoria was Schafer’s first acting gig, but she was already a well-known model, having worked with fashion powerhouses such as Dior, Calvin Klein and Vera Wang. She was also, notably, a plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit against an anti-trans bathroom bill in North Carolina in 2017,and was named one of Teen Vogue’s 21 under 21 the same year.
You can read Hunter’s full interview with i-D magazine here. Clips of the show below: