Hunter Schafer

North Carolina · connectedBorn 1998

American actress, model, and LGBTQ activist (born 1998)

Studied at Needham B. Broughton High School
Studied at University of North Carolina School of the Arts

model, actor, LGBTQ rights activist, screenwriter

Quotations with a citation

I think it's always preferable that a trans person plays a trans person — one, because there's enough cisgender actors in Hollywood, and two, because trans people can bring levels of experience to the trans experience that they might be portraying. A cisgender actor might be able to conceptualize and get it down to a T but won't have the experiences in their back pocket that they can bring forward to use for that character. Trans people deserve to see themselves represented on their own TV screens, not being inhabited by people who might not completely understand them.

It's not that a transition story doesn't make a character whole. It's like, in my life, my transness may affect the way I move throughout the world, but I'm dealing with a whole lot of other shit too.

Telling stories or trying to portray a message through a body, how that body looks in a garment, and how the garment affects the way the body moves; to modeling, which is bringing garments to life with your body; then to acting, which is bringing a character to life with your body and mind. It feels linked in a lot of ways. That's been the project of my life. Just trying to feel seen and learn how to see others correctly.

I know for a fact that I'm one of the most famous trans people in media right now, and I do feel a sense of responsibility, and maybe a little bit of guilt, for not being more of a spokesperson. But ultimately, I really do believe that not making it the centerpiece to what I'm doing will allow me to get further. And I think getting further and doing awesome shit, in the interest of 'the movement,' will be way more helpful than talking about it all the time.