Hunter Schafer’s latest role is the new face of Prada. In a new campaign, the 22-year-old model and actor, best known for her role in Euphoria, poses with the Italian luxury brand’s beloved Galleria bag. Created in 2007, the adored accessory is considered a “neo-classic”, its design inspired by classic styles and fused with Prada’s 21st-century identity.
In Schafer’s spot, filmmaker Xavier Dolan takes viewers down a rabbit hole into a magic dreamscape of all things Prada, mixing film and fashion to blur the lines of fiction and reality. Schafer takes on the role of the heroine; a young romantic, traveling through different Prada-filled fantasies.
Below Schafer discusses her approach to acting, what goes into bringing a character to life and starring in Prada’s latest campaign.
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Vanity Fair: How would you describe your craft of acting?
I don’t know if I can call it “my craft” yet. Acting came into my life as a surprise. It’s drastically different from how I’ve expressed myself for most of my life, meaning I’m still adapting and learning what acting is. However, if I were to describe my process as it is now, I would say it’s an amplified form of reflection. Finding my personal experiences and tethering them to those of my character.
How do you create a character? How do you bring reality to your roles?
I look at creating a character kind of like a backwards dissection. I think it’s helpful to isolate/separate traits that are nature vs nurture and focus on the nurturing of this Person. You can imagine happenings, influential moments, beliefs, etc., that mold the character’s personality, and make a map that gets as scientific as you want or need it to be. But the “nature” side of a character is the unpredictable factor. That’s where I use my personal experiences and vitality to activate the person I’m inhabiting.
What for you is a heroine? How would you define her?
A heroine is someone who has moved throughout the world with grace, and the clarity that’s required to authentically move those around them. Honestly, it could be anyone. Heroines are everywhere.
Who is your heroine?
How do you choose just one? I’m deeply influenced by my family — blood and chosen — all of whom act as heroines in my life.
How important are dreams, fantasies, imagination, to you as an actor?
Imagination is definitely the most vital tool, to me, as an actor! Your job is to fill up blank space, which I think warrants an active imagination that has a life of its own. Like most people, I often don’t feel in control of it. Our brains do that stuff for us; stick someone in front of a wall with nothing on it and their mind will begin to fill it up. I just try to channel that yearning to activate space into person instead of a space.
Do you have a dream you’d like to fulfill? A fantasy you’d like to realize?
