Barbie Ferreira, the heroine of Euphoria, has denied rumours that she walked off the set of the show, saying that she wanted to portray more than the “fat best friend.”
Barbie starred in the first two seasons of the adolescent drama series as Kat Hernandez, whose plot centred around battling for body positivity while exploring her sexuality.
However, Barbie revealed in August last year that she would not be returning for the third season, citing disagreements with series creator Sam Levinson over the character’s direction.
She has now explained why she chose to leave, stating that it was a “mutual decision.”
‘I don’t think there was a place for [Kat] to go,’ she explained.
‘I think there were places she could have gone. I just don’t think it would have fit into the show.
‘I don’t know if it was going to do her justice, and I think both parties knew that. I really wanted to be able to not be the fat best friend,’ she said while speaking on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.
She added: ‘I don’t want to play that, and I think they didn’t want that either.’
With the filming of Euphoria requiring around nine months, Barbie expressed a desire to work on other projects, particularly after her screen time was decreased in the second season.
‘I feel like with season two and certain parts of it, I felt was a kind of a struggle for both parties,’ she explained.
‘Sam, me…it was a struggle to find the continuation of her. So that was actually really hurtful watching it and seeing the fans get upset.
‘I just felt like maybe it’s like I overstayed my welcome a little bit? So, for me, it actually felt good to be like, “Okay, I get to not worry about this and we both don’t get to worry about this’ because it’s exhausting”.’
After series fans observed Kat’s narrative was being sidelined, rumours spread that she even walked off the set during an argument with Sam.
Barbie, on the other hand, stated that she was not a “victim” of the second season and that everything was “good.”
‘I kind of got sucked into this drama that I never asked to be in and that I’ve never talked about. I’m of the mindset that if it doesn’t exit I’m not going to address it because then I’m adding fuel to it. It’s taken on a life of its own. Don’t believe everything you read,’ she said.
She made it a point to state she never went off set, but she wondered if the rumours were started by her spraining her ankle and requiring an X-ray one day.
Barbie did admit that it ‘hurt’ to make the difficult choice to leave, and that she would have played Kat for ‘as long as I was requested’.
‘It obviously hurt because I love Kat and she means a lot to people with all her good and bad and she was a character I’d never seen before on TV…but [I thought I] might as well leave on a high and do my own things.’
Barbie stated on social media that leaving the programme was a difficult choice for her.
‘After four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character Kat, I’m having to say a very teary-eyed goodbye,’ she wrote on Instagram.
‘I hope many of you could see yourself in her like I did and that she brought you joy to see her journey into the character that she is today.’
“I put all my care and love into her and I hope you guys could feel it.’
The third season of Euphoria will begin filming later this year.
Euphoria is available to watch on Sky and NOW.
Source My Celebrity Life.