Hunter Schafer felt little euphoria in telling her religious parents about the titular show.
The “Euphoria” star was naturally ecstatic to land her breakout role in the hit HBO series at only 20 years old, but, as Schafer recalled on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, she had some trouble explaining her more explicit scenes to the devout Christians who raised her.
“I didn’t tell them that I was in the audition process because I really wasn’t sure that I was gonna do it,” she said, adding: “I didn’t tell them until I had actually gotten the job, which kind of left them in a situation, ’cause I didn’t really give them room to give their opinions.”
Schafer explained Thursday that her family’s Presbyterian congregation consists of “little, old, nice, white Christian people from the South” — her dad, Mac, is a pastor and her mom, Katy, is a youth minister — making the news a little awkward to break.
“When I had to tell my parents, ‘In the first episode I’m having anal sex with a 45-year-old and cutting myself in the arm,’” Schafer said Thursday, “my first thought is, ‘OK, they have to tell their congregation that their kid’s going to be on TV … and see me getting buttfucked.’”
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“Euphoria” certainly covers intense subject matter and doesn’t shy away from real-life issues like substance abuse, sexual assault or self-harm, as evident in the 2019 pilot in which Schafer’s teenage character Jules has anal sex with the father of another student.
Schafer said that coming clean to her parents about her job offer made her “jealous” of peers whose families understand or work in the business, though she also said she was happy about her parents coming from a “completely separate world.”
“Even though they didn’t know a lot about it, I think they know the nature of this industry can be very intense, and they just didn’t want me to get fucked up by it, you know?” she said Thursday.
Schafer isn’t the only “Euphoria” star to endure some awkward family moments, however, as Sydney Sweeney has also shared some of her own.
Schafer did note on Thursday that her parents are on “the chiller side of Christianity.”
“To a degree, I do still feel bad because that’s something that they still have to deal with,” the actor shared on the podcast. “You know, my movie coming out next week, ‘Kinds of Kindness,’ which I’m so excited about, my one scene in it — I got my titties out.”
“I have no personal problems with it, but some people … aren’t going to get it,” she added.
