Hunter Schafer is best known for portraying transgender teenager Jules Vaughn on HBO’s hit drama Euphoria, but she doesn’t want her gender identity to define her future roles.
The actress, who is trans, told GQ that she has been offered “tons of trans roles” since her breakout.
“I don’t want to be [reduced to] that, and I find it ultimately demeaning to me and what I want to do,” said Schafer, 25. “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.”
The role the actress has played in elevating visibility for transgender people is not lost on Schafer, but she feels she can do more for the trans community by continuing to simply show who she is.
“I know for a fact that I’m one of the most famous trans people in media right now,” she said, “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 s–t, in the interest of ‘the movement,’ will be way more helpful than talking about it all the time.”
Schafer has portrayed Jules on Euphoria since 2019, appearing in all 19 episodes. She has also cowritten and co–executive produced an episode of the series, which has aired two seasons but is currently facing delays on the third.
She has been an advocate for transgender rights since before Euphoria, coming out as trans in ninth grade. In 2016, she fought alongside the ACLU and Lambda Legal against North Carolina’s notorious HB2 law that required people in schools and state facilities to only use restrooms that corresponded with the sex listed on their birth certificates.
Schafer wrote essays and appeared on local news in opposition to the law, simultaneously becoming a role model and target of derision from people on each side of the issue. Schafer credits her parents for helping her through that time.
“It was a lot of responsibility, and life-changing in a way that I don’t think I even understood until it had already happened,” she said. “I think they felt a duty to protect me.”
The law was fully repealed in 2020, a year after Euphoria debuted.
