Hunter Schafer Celebrates First Lead Role in Berlin Horror Film ‘Cuckoo’: ‘The Training Wheels Are Off, Babe’ (2024)

After making her acting debut as trans teen Jules in HBO’s hit series “Euphoria” in 2019, Hunter Schafer found herself in high demand. But as she flipped through scripts, only one gave the 25-year-old what she calls “the sparkly feeling”: Tilman Singer’s horror film “Cuckoo.”

Schafer auditioned and was cast as Gretchen, an angsty and isolated 17-year-old who is forced to move with her father, stepmother and young stepsister to a resort in Germany, where she soon learns that things are not as they seem. Wrapping production in July 2022, “Cuckoo” marked Schafer’s first acting job after “Euphoria” and first leading film role. Now, nearly two years later, “Cuckoo” is set to world premiere at Berlin Film Festival on Friday.

“Any and all acting experience I had, I attributed to being on the set of ‘Euphoria’ and being around those people who I had gotten really comfortable with — particularly [creator] Sam Levinson, who was sort of my acting teacher,” Schafer tells Variety. “And this is like, ‘OK, the training wheels are off, babe, and you gotta bring it.’ That was so scary.”

Also scary is the film, which sees Schafer face off against a mysterious bird-like monster with a scream-like call who seeks to impregnate women with her evil spawn. The story, written by Singer, is based off the lore of the cuckoo bird, some of which are brood parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other species.

“It’s really a freaky thing that that’s just in nature and birds are just out here being complete dicks to other birds and giving them their own babies to raise,” Schafer says. “Are you kidding? That’s psycho!”

The movie — which also stars Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick and Jan Bluthardt — required Schafer to learn several new skills, including the art of stage combat.

“I loved being covered in blood for half the movie and the intensity of it,” she says. “Another first for this was having to do more action sequences, like simulating violence and stuff, which I loved as far as the choreography goes. You know, there’s moments where I felt like a real badass.”

Despite its horror label, “Cuckoo” employs sci-fi and psychological thriller elements — and at its heart is a family drama, according to Schafer. Her character, Gretchen, is struggling after the loss of her mother and has taken to near complete isolation to cope.

“It came down to identifying a feeling of being sort of alone and a bit lost and disoriented by your surroundings,” Schafer says. “Even with her dad and family, she was just really in this completely isolated headspace, and that sort of elevates all of these really terrifying conspiracies that are happening around her.”

Somewhat surprisingly, music is also a big part of “Cuckoo,” as the film features a killer soundtrack — including a moody song featuring Schafer playing the bass and singing.

“I wasn’t anticipating it being a whole recording moment, but it ended up happening,” Schafer laughs. “I mess around with music casually in my personal life. It was another one of the skills I had to pick up for this movie — I had to do sign language, I had to learn the butterfly knife and then I had to do bass lessons. As far as the singing goes … it’s not like she’s trying to do vibrato or whatever, it’s just kind of scratchy, maybe a little punky.”

Schafer will continue her horror streak with the newly announced “Palette,” which is being presented to buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin, running congruent to the festival. Directed by Zach Strauss (“SMILF”) in his feature debut, “Palette” will see Schafer star opposite Noomi Rapace as a woman with synesthesia, or the ability to hear colors, who is “recruited into a secretive, cult-like industry of color design, uncovering the dark reality of what it takes to make the world’s greatest hues,” according to the film’s synopsis. It was Schafer’s background in the visual arts — she studied the medium in high school and once contributed art to the cult website Rookie — that drew her to the project.

“I obviously can’t reveal too much, but the practice of making pigments was really interesting to me with my past involvement in visual arts,” she says. “But I never learned how to make pigments — it’s such a niche part of visual art.”

Schafer also scored a role in “Poor Things” auteur Yorgos Lanthimos’ mysterious anthology film “Kinds of Kindness” — starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and more — but clarifies that she’ll just be making a cameo.

“I feel like people found out I was involved and then it was like, ‘Hunter Schafer is also starring in this thing.’ No, I’m making a cameo, so I just want to make that clear,” Schafer says. “And, you know, I never even got to read the script. Yorgos just emailed me and was like, ‘Hey, I think I have a small role for you in this movie. I can’t show you anything, but do you want to do it?’ I was like, ‘f*ck yeah, see you in New Orleans.’ And that’s what happened. I can’t really reveal that much. Also, even if I did reveal things, I still don’t know what the rest of the movie is about! I have a very vague idea.”

As for the long-awaited third season of “Euphoria,” Schafer says she still hasn’t seen a script.

“I don’t know what I’m allowed to say, but I think it’s pretty clear we haven’t started production,” she says, despite rumors that the show had started filming late last year.

Among the rumors swirling about “Euphoria” Season 3 is that the series will fast-forward five years to accommodate the fact that its target 2025 premiere will mean a three-year gap in between seasons (Season 2 debuted in January 2022). So, where would Schafer want to see Jules in five years?

“As someone who cares about her, I want the best for her. However, that’s typically not what makes good television,” she says. “So I don’t think it’s a very realistic dream for her, but I feel like a big sister to her now and I’m like, ‘Give my girl some peace.'”

Like “Euphoria” co-stars Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney, Schafer will undoubtedly walk back onto set as a full-blown movie star — a phenomenon that she is slowly coming to terms with, thanks in no small part to her experience filming “Cuckoo.”

“Most of the time when I watch myself, I have to watch through my hands. I didn’t have to do that with this movie,” Schafer says of seeing the final cut of “Cuckoo.” “I genuinely felt really solid about my performance and about the movie itself and I really loved it.”

And Schafer plans to revel in that feeling at the film’s Berlin premiere. “Usually, I just do the carpet and then I go to dinner while everybody watches the movie,” she says. “But I think I’m going to watch the movie with everybody else.”