Hunter Schafer has gone a pretty long way since she debuted as Jules in Euphoria, and she’s starred in big films like the Hunger Games prequel and is even set to appear in Hideo Kojima’s upcoming game OD. Despite being a trans actress though, Schafer said that she is purposefully refusing to take on those roles.
In a recent interview with GQ, Schafer talks about her trans identity and how she doesn’t want that to be the main point of her roles moving forward. She says, “It’s been very intentional. 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.” She continues, “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. Especially after high school, I 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.”
With LGBTQ+ representation being a lightning rod for alt-right, anti-woke sentiment online, Schafer also does admit that there has been pressure for her to be some sort of spokesperson for the trans community, to which she says:
“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.”
Maybe down the line we can get to a point where casting a trans person would be no big deal, and the way that Schafer’s career has been going I think we’re heading down the right direction. In the meantime, we’ll just have to deal with the current situation of stunt-casting and anti-representation, but fingers crossed we’re closer to the ideal cultural norm.
I’m still crossing my fingers Schafer either gets cast as Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda or a live-action Spider-Gwen in a future Spider-Man movie. Make it happen, Sony!
For now, you can watch out for Schafer in Kinds of Kindness which comes out June 21.
