Barbie Ferreira left “Euphoria” simply because she did not want to feel like a “background character.”
“Some people are like, ‘I would do that.’ I’m like, ‘Good for you,’” the actress, 29, said on Tuesday’s episode of the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, insisting her exit “wasn’t dramatic.”
“You want to be a background character for nine months? That’s, like, totally fine and cool. But I was like, I want to do other stuff.”
Ferreira — who played Kat Hernandez for the first two seasons — further explained that her exit was “kind of the opposite of dramatic.”
She described it as a “long process” of “having conversations with people and us trying to figure out how to make Kat, like, a fully fleshed out character, and it just wasn’t going anywhere.”
When it became clear she and the show’s creative team couldn’t chart out a path for her character, the “Nope” actress asked them to “let me just go do my thing.”
“I don’t need to be on the biggest TV show on Earth if I’m not, like, acting, you know?” she said on the pod. “So I would rather do an indie movie where I’m acting, I’m flexing my muscles, I’m being creatively … asked to do things rather than kind of sitting around to be a background character.”
In August 2022, Ferreira abruptly announced her departure from “Euphoria,” sharing a statement on her Instagram Stories at the time.
“[A]fter four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character kat, I’m having to say a very teary eyed goodbye,” she wrote at the time.
“[I] hope many of you could see yourself in her like [I] did and that she brought you joy to see her journey into the character she is today.”
“[I] put all my care and love into her and [I] hope you guys could feel it,” she added.
Since then, she has repeatedly shut down rumors that a behind-the-scenes feud between her and the show’s creator, Sam Levinson, was the driving force behind her shocking exit.
The third and final season of “Euphoria” returned Sunday after a four-year hiatus, bringing back Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Maude Apatow, Hunter Schafer and Alexa Demie.
During its first episode, the show explained the fate of Angus Cloud’s character — who died in July 2023 at age 25. It also paid tribute to late actor Eric Dane, who passed away in February following a battle with ALS.
Story-wise, the series has continued to be one of the more controversial on TV, with Sweeney’s Cassie shocking viewers with an OnlyFans baby costume and Elordi’s Nate getting major blowback from fans.
New episodes of “Euphoria” stream on HBO every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.
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