Hunter Schafer greets me with a confession. Beckoning me through a small gated fence into the winding maze of Chateau Marmont's lush, greenery-covered courtyard, she gives me a hug, then yawns. There's a lot happening right now, she says. I've barely gotten a handle on it. There's a grey vape in her hand, worn split-toe Tabis on her feet, and a wry smile on her face. "To be fully honest with you, I'd forgotten this was happening."
It's refreshing candour coming from a young woman whose most recent and guiding revelation seems to be that she doesn't owe the world shit. In just eight years, Schafer has gone from teen trans-rights advocate to high-fashion model to breakout actor on one of TV's biggest shows, HBO's high-school melodrama Euphoria, and now film star. Her first leading role, in German writer-director Tilman Singer's horror movie Cuckoo, hit big screens in August.
That's enough capital-C change to give anyone whiplash, but Schafer seems to absorb it all with an unflappability that belies her 25 years. As we speak, she's got less than 24 hours before she departs her Brentwood home here in Los Angeles for the rest of the year to film a starring role in Ridley Scott's upcoming Blade Runner miniseries, alongside Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh. It's a dream job, one Schafer didn't even know was happening seven days ago.
"I'm scrambling," she says, sprawling her fivefoot-10-inch frame over a patterned mid-century modern couch in a way that looks very unscrambled. The green tea she's stirred honey and sugar into is rapidly cooling on the table, surrounded by the dregs of a hummus and veggie plate. I'm pretty good at living out of a suitcase. I've been doing that a lot these past few years, so I'm not really concerned. I'm just shit at packing.
This story is from the October/November 2024 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
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This story is from the October/November 2024 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
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