It was only last August that we were hit with the devastating announcement that our beloved Kat Hernandez would not be returning for season three of Euphoria. Actress Barbie Ferreira announced her departure from the show on her Instagram, but was coy about exactly why she was exiting so abruptly. After months of relative silence on the matter, it seems Ferreira is ready to clear the air. Her recent appearance as a guest on Dax Sheppard's podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, saw her address some of the ambiguities, and as it turns out, the decision to exit may not have entirely been her own.
“I think it was a mutual decision,” Ferreira told Shepard on the episode. “I think my character who I love so dearly, I don’t think there was a place for her to go. She had run her course, story-wise.”
Ferreira went on to explain that she didn't feel Euphoria's show runner, Sam Levinson, really understood or related to Kat the way he did to other characters (Levinson has been open about how much of his own deeply personal experiences with addiction and adolescence he mined for the character of Rue).
“Sam writes for things that he relates to. I don’t think he relates to Kat. I related to Kat," Ferreira said. "I just felt like maybe I overstayed my welcome a little bit. For me I actually felt good to be like, OK, I get to not worry about this and we both don’t get too worried about this because it’s exhausting."
For Ferreira, what was most important was avoiding hurtful and limiting stereotypes. “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, you know?" Ferreira said. "I don’t want to play that and I think think they didn’t want that either. So I would have played her for as long as I was asked to depending on what the material was.”
What's next for Ferreira?
Ferreira is set to star in a 90s drag king romance Young King, alongside Kiersey Clemons, and was only recently announced as one of the leads in 70s horror film remake Faces of Death (alongside Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery).
What's next for Euphoria?
While we're heartbroken about having to say goodbye to Kat, we're still itching to be reunited with our other favourite Euphoria characters for season three — especially after what went down in that emotionally exhausting season finale. Official word is that we won't be getting our mitts on new episodes until 2024.
