Hunter Schafer of "Euphoria" spoke with musician Arca for "V Magazine's" latest cover

In a fashion spread that blends river nymph with business bitch, biker chick and fashion phoenix, Hunter Schafer is serving a little of everything as the cover star of V Magazine’s latest issue, V124: Genervation V.

In the accompanying interview, the model-turned-actress best known for playing Jules on Euphoria spoke with Arca, the exquisitely strange musician best-known for her avant-garde productions and gory, gender-mashing live performances. Both being prominent trans figures in entertainment, the duo chat with a level of familiarity and intimacy not often seen in the pages of mainstream fashion magazines.

“Your first scene, with Jules using the syringe [for hormone replacement therapy]…I was screaming so hard because I had never seen that on TV before, with proper production and cinematography. That was so moving and beautiful,” Arca tells Schafer.

They go on to discuss the value of body modifications, resonances between science fiction narratives and transness (apparently agreeing to a “sci-fi collab”), and the difficulty of representing transitioning on screen.

“Transitioning is such a personal experience. Was there something redeeming about sharing it, and maybe demystifying it?” Arca asks.

“It didn’t feel natural at first. Part of surviving [that] experience was just, like, getting through shit. Letting it rest, and not addressing it. I think that’s what I had been [doing] up to that point: just going and going, fighting to be on the other side of my transition. There was so much that I was working towards, and I was so excited to [be out of] North Carolina that I don’t think I’d ever looked back on [that experience],” Schafer replies.

The interview arrives at an exciting moment for both performers. Where Schafer is set to appear on the upcoming, highly anticipated second season of Euphoria, Arca released new music just this week — a 62-minute song she describes as “a transmission broadcasted into this world from a speculative fictional universe in which the fundamentally analogue format of FM pirate radio remains one of few means to escape authoritarian surveillance powered by a hostage sentience gestated by a post-singularity AI.”

As for their teased sci-fi collab, we’ve got our galactic nodes crossed.

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