Barbie Ferreira Risked It All — and It Paid Off

Last year, Barbie Ferreira thought that life as we knew it was ending. So she did as any 20-something with a rebellious streak and a sense of urgency would do: She got a tattoo. “I have a spiral on my butt, because I was spiraling,” she says. “I was like, ‘Fuck it. I can’t die and not have tattoos.’”

Of course, the world didn’t end. But the sudden change in its pace was a jolt for the 24 year old. “It was just weird to come off of something that changed my life and the very next year, boom, nothing,” she says.

That something, being Euphoria, is the HBO hit that follows a group of teens as they navigate sex, love, identity, addiction, and trauma. The hour-long episodes evoke both sympathy and empathy, depending on your point of view. The fact that the entire cast (which includes Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, and Jacob Elordi) is achingly good-looking is icing on the cake.

Ferreira plays Kat Hernandez, who flips the script after footage of her losing her virginity gets posted online: She reclaims her sexuality by becoming a camgirl who videochats with clients — some of whom pay her to degrade them — while in various states of undress. As her confidence skyrockets, Kat overhauls her style, ditching polo shirts and jeans for mesh tops and bondage-inspired harnesses.

Out of character, Ferreira is also no stranger to transformation. Born in New York City’s East Harlem, she spent her early years in Queens before moving to New Jersey. “I was the kind of girl in eighth grade who was coming in with an electric-blue smoky eye and fake lashes and everyone’s like, ‘Who the fuck is that?’” At 16, she got a job at American Apparel, a brand known for its body-hugging leggings and tanks. “I threw out all my clothes and started wearing clothes that were more formfitting,” says Ferreira. “[Before that], I used to be really insecure and I only wore really specific outfits that would cover my body.”

The store often used its employees as models, and Ferreira (who at the time went by Barbara) was tapped for a shoot. Even then, she saw it merely as a means to an end. “I did it because I wanted to act,” she says. “[But] I quickly realized it’s really hard to get into this industry and make yourself known.”

She went all in, choosing to opt out of college: “I did it without anyone knowing…. My mom is an immigrant [from Brazil], so she had no idea about SATs, ACTs, or college prep. To this day, she’ll warn her friends who are also immigrants who have children. She’ll be like, ‘There’s this thing called the SATs. Do not let them skip it!’” Instead, Ferreira spent the next several years modeling for brands like H&M and Aerie and gained an even larger online following after an unretouched ad campaign for the latter went viral. Still, in the back of her mind, she says, she knew she wasn’t “going to be doing this modeling thing forever.”

When Ferreira got the call that she’d landed the role in Euphoria, she was at her therapist’s office. (“It was good timing because if they said no, then it would also have been a great place to be.”) The news marked the end of her life as Barbie the Model (and a grueling two-month audition process) and the start of her acting career. “I made a lot of decisions at a young age that forced me — with no backup plan — to just go for it, and it worked, thank God.”

Though to say Ferreira’s plan to become an actor “worked” is a bit like saying a space launch “worked.” She didn’t land just any show, she landed the show. Euphoria has pulled back the curtain on what it means to be a modern-day teenager, welcoming in viewers of all ages.

In fact, the show has garnered a fandom of super-enthusiasts who gather in groups on the internet to dissect plot points, post memes, and generally obsess over every aspect of Euphoria, including its actors. Ferreira is unrattled by this, if only because she’s been on the other side: “Harry Potter was my first love. I used to go to conventions and meet and greets. Then, when I was a young teen, I loved One Direction. I was a huge fan of Panic! At The Disco when they were a band,” Ferreira says. “I, much like Kat, escaped into a different world when I could. I totally get when people like something. I try to be very understanding of that.”

Less than half an hour later, as if fate is testing whether or not she really does remember her days wielding a magic wand at Harry Potter conventions, a fan approaches as we exit the restaurant where Ferreira and I just split a plate of mini cannolis. The fan asks to take a selfie with Ferreira, and then, more sheepishly, if she’ll make a video she can send to her sister. Ferreira smiles and says, “Let’s do it,” then asks for her sister’s name. There haven’t been any Euphoria fan conventions because of the pandemic, but I get the sense Ferreira would be the type to greet everyone waiting in line.

But for now, when she’s not filming the show’s second season, Ferreira is happily at home in Los Angeles with her three cats (Mortimer, Magdalena, and Thomas) and partner, Elle. Elle was the artist behind the aforementioned tattoo, which was created using the stick-and-poke technique. “[Doing tattoos] was a new thing for them, but now they’re really good,” says Ferreira.

Ferreira, too, has picked up new habits over the past 18 months. Following that initial spiral, she says, “I feel like I did a lot of work on myself that I would not have done if I wasn’t paused.” She spent time in therapy and started going to the gym. “I just got my shit together.”

That included buying a house. “My dream in life was to own a house,” she says. “I had to learn a lot. I’m 24. I started looking for houses at 23. Before the pandemic, it was very hard to do. But during the pandemic, everyone was fleeing, [so] I managed to get a house with no credit. Not one lick of credit,” she says. Then she adds, leaning into my recorder, “I have good credit now, everyone!”

The renovations took seven months. “I love theme rooms,” Ferreira says. “I want every room to look different.” Her living room is light and airy, she explains, while the kitchen, with its seafoam green, checkerboard floors, is all camp. Next up for a makeover is her closet-slash-glam room, for which she’s purchased a lighted storage vanity called a SlayStation. Before setting it up, though, “I need to rebuy all my makeup. It’s been in boxes for literally months now.” (Dior Forever Skin Glow Foundation, Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel, and Sunnies Face Airblush are all on her list.)

But at home, Ferreira wears little makeup and favors tracksuits. “When I’m off, I’m off, baby. Even this is like me dressing up,” she says, gesturing to the T-shirt and cutoffs she’s wearing.

Ferreira is not interested in anything othering, be it clothing (“If you don’t want to make clothes my size and you’re a big fashion house, whatever. There are so many indie designers now that are really fucking good and make clothes that fit”) or social media. “I feel like Instagram is gatekept,” she says. These days, she’s more into TikTok: “I love the internet. I grew up on it. [But] I think at this point in my life, as a grown adult, it is not the same thing for me as it used to be as an agonizing, emo teen. I just use it to laugh. I see such funny things [on TikTok]. The algorithm is better. I’ll find a funny video that has 50 likes.”

Ferreira says she mostly just watches, but she’ll post videos every so often on an incognito account, @borbiana. “Every day my publicist is like, ‘Do you want me to verify you on TikTok?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t think so.’ I’m keeping it light.”

She has, however, posted a few videos that offer fuzzy glimpses into Euphoria’s second season, one of which alludes to a sex scene. That said, when it comes to intimacy, Ferreira notes, “My character is definitely more toned-down this season. There’s no latex.” The makeup looks — colorful eyeliner and sparkling decals — that came to define the first season will also be “very different,” she says with a knowing smile. “That’s all I can say.”

As the world eagerly waits for season two’s debut in 2022, Ferreira is keeping an eye out for her next project after just wrapping a film role in Jordan Peele’s Nope, slated for 2022. “I like things that shock and also deeply inspire,” she says. That’s what attracted her to the role of Bailey Butler in last year’s Unpregnant, which followed two teens who had to cross state lines for one to get an abortion. “I knew it would ruffle feathers…but I kind of like that.”

Ferreira believes in one’s right to make decisions about their own body, which brings us back to tattoos. She got another one — her first by machine, not stick-and-poke — near her breasts. “The artist, Pix, does these really cool lines. So I [had her do] something around my boobies. I always do things around my boobies. I think it’s because I grew up not liking my boobs,” she muses. “So now it kind of makes me feel cute.”

Do the tattoo lines represent anything to her? “Absolutely not,” she says. “Well…I really felt like I couldn’t do anything [to my body] for so long. I couldn’t even cut my hair one inch or I’d lose clients when I was a model. So I guess it does represent something — me taking over my own self.”

Photographed by: Jennifer Livingston

Fashion stylist: Chris Horan 

Hair: Orlando Pita

Makeup: Maki Ryoke 

Manicure: Mei Kawajiri 

Set design: Griffin Frazen

Production: Hudson Hill Production

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