“Being trans is spiritual” for her, Jules explains to her therapist, and she doesn’t want to “stand still.” Schafer’s reflection became the inspiration for “F- Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob,” during which Jules considers going off her hormones after coming to the self-critical realization that she’s “framed her entire womanhood around men.” “Like, rather than wanting to be as beautiful as another cis woman, wanting to be as beautiful as something even grander, like the ocean.” “It was about this strange spiral I was having about hormone therapy and making an analogy between learning how to find beauty within yourself,” says Schafer, who, like her character, is trans. Schafer shared with him a poem she wrote upon graduating high school: Shortly after Levinson penned the series’ first holiday special, starring Zendaya as Rue, he and Schafer began generating ideas for a followup from Jules’ perspective. Key to Schafer’s healing process was resuming work on “Euphoria” in a new creative role. It sucked at the time because it was really kind of a crash and burn, but I’m so thankful for it.” “I’m medicated now, and I feel more like myself than I have in years. “Having to really sit with myself and not having an objective was terrifying and brought up a lot of things maybe I hadn’t processed yet,” she says. We all just surrendered to quarantine and stewing in our homes.”Ī self-professed workaholic, Schafer was forced to slow down and address mental health issues that had been lurking “under the surface for a long time.” And then that started to fade away as well. “I think we were all grasping onto the hope that would be something that would maybe last, like, a month or two. Production on Season 2 of “Euphoria” was postponed just three days before it was scheduled to begin in March, and a “maybe too optimistic” Schafer hadn’t anticipated spending months in isolation. The collaboration was therapeutic, not only for Jules but for Schafer, who struggled with adjusting to life in quarantine. Really, we were just acting on the phone, and I found that to be so useful and also fun to contribute to the script.” “There’s an element of play that I didn’t understand about writing before. “I would say a lot of the episode - particularly the therapy session - was birthed out of us just riffing and maybe accidentally falling into character while we were on the phone talking,” Schafer says. While brainstorming dialogue for the hourlong character study, Schafer and Levinson took turns pretending to be Jules and her therapist, imagining what might come up in conversation between a counselor and a 17-year-old in crisis. Now, Jules is back in suburbia - and in therapy - to unpack the trauma that led to her climactic getaway. “Which was really difficult, because even I personally love Rue so deeply and do not like to think about the images that I had to come up with in my head and sit with for that scene.”įilmed in October, the episode picks up after the emotional Season 1 finale, which saw Jules flee home for the city, leaving a distraught Rue in her wake. “It was kind of like letting the worst of Jules’ imagination take over,” Schafer says during a video call from New York City. Jules’ increasingly desperate pleas to “open the f- door” are met with ominous silence - an extension of last month’s episode, which saw the self-destructive Rue midrelapse in their shared dreamscape. During the intense nightmare, Jules arrives at her imaginary New York City apartment to find her high school soulmate, Rue (Zendaya), alone and unresponsive in their bathroom. The harrowing dream sequence occurs near the end of Friday’s “Euphoria” special, which sees Jules in a prolonged state of vulnerability and introspection. This sequence involved none of the above - just Schafer in character as Jules, a locked door and a devastating fear of what awaited on the other side. The 22-year-old actress described it as the “most physically demanding scene” she’s ever filmed for the gritty HBO drama, which became known during its first season for graphic depictions of violence, sex and hard drugs. Hunter Schafer spent a half-hour screaming, sobbing and slamming her body against a door while shooting the latest episode of “Euphoria.” Warning: This post contains spoilers from this week’s special episode of “Euphoria.”
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