Barbie Ferrera on Why She Quit ‘Euphoria,’ Played ‘The Chubby Friend’ — Deadline

HBO

Barbie Ferreira has provided more explanation behind her decision to leave HBO trance After the second season.

In conversation with Dax Shepherd on his site Armchair expert podcast, she explained that she didn’t think there was a place for her character, Kat, to go. “I think there were places she could have gone. I just don’t think it would have fit into the show,” she said. “I don’t know if that would do her justice, and I think both parties knew I really wanted to not I would be a fat best friend. I don’t want to play that, and I guess they don’t either. I would play it as long as I was asked to.”

Last August, Ferrera announced via Instagram that she was leaving the HBO show after two seasons. She played Kat, the best friend of Maddie (Alexa Demi) and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) in Season 1, which focused on her journey of self-love as a body-conscious teen starting the school year looking to change her reputation. In the second season, her character’s storyline included a lie about a terminal illness.

“After four years of portraying the most private and enigmatic character Kat, I have to say a very teary-eyed goodbye,” she wrote. “I hope many of you see yourself in her as I did and that it has brought you the joy of seeing her journey in the person she is today. I put all my care and love into her and I hope you guys feel that. I love you Catherine Hernandez.”

There were rumors of tension during the second season between Ferreira and show creator Sam Levinson, but Ferreira tried to clear the air with Shepard. “I try to make everyone like me,” she said. “To me, that’s absurd [the stories about tension]. “

She went on to say that it was a mutual decision for her to leave the show. “It’s a character I’ve never seen on TV before,” she explained. “Obviously it hurt because I love Kat and she was so important to me and a lot of people, with all her good and bad. It was a character I’d never seen on TV before and I don’t know if we were ever going to have something like that in this specific way, which was irritable.”

I just felt like, maybe it’s like I’m a little over my welcome period? So, for me, it felt good because I’m like, ‘Well, we don’t have to worry about this, and we don’t have to worry too much about this,’ because it’s stressful,” she continued. “It was a really good thing.”