Actor Hunter Schafer, who stars in Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming sci-fi series “Blade Runner 2099,” spoke publicly about undergoing gender-affirming genital surgery in December, calling the experience positive during a recent interview with Elle.
“I just had bottom surgery in December, which was amazing, and I love it so much,” said the 27-year-old “Euphoria” star, who began transitioning in her teens.
Schafer described the decision as the culmination of a long personal process. “Like I said, for a long time I’ve embraced the gender-expansive part of myself, and I really wanted to try to make that previous body work, because I thought there was something really cool and badass about it,” she said.
She also described the recovery period as slow-going. “I think my limit was 150 steps per day, which is nothing,” she said.
Passport Dispute
Schafer became entangled in a political controversy last year after her new U.S. passport listed her gender as male rather than female, a change she attributed to the Trump administration’s reversal of Biden-era gender marker policy. Schafer said she never updated her birth certificate, suggesting passport officials cross-referenced her original birth record when issuing the new document.
The change alarmed her and raised concerns about how other transgender Americans might be affected by similar policy shifts. “It doesn’t change really anything about me or my transness, however it does make life a little harder,” Schafer said at the time. She added that the episode left her “thinking about other trans women who this might also be happening to, or other trans people, the list only gets longer as far as the intricacies that come along with the difficulty that this brings into real life shit.”
Schafer was more blunt in her assessment of the administration’s policy, saying, “And fuck this administration.”
On Labels and Her New Role
Schafer has also pushed back against being described as a “transsexual actress,” saying she prefers to simply be known as an actress. “I worked so hard to get to where I am, past these really hard points in my transition, and now I just want to be a girl and finally move on,” she said.
Schafer’s comments come as she promotes her role in “Blade Runner 2099,” a reported $160 million Amazon Prime Video miniseries produced by Ridley Scott. Set photos released in July showed Schafer on set playing Cora, described as the series’ second most prominent character — a human who has spent so long posing as a replicant that she has lost touch with her own humanity.
