Barbie Ferreira is done playing by the internet’s rules—even if she still loves a good cooking video on her burner TikTok.
The -year-old Euphoria alum is currently pulling double duty with two majorly different projects: the gritty horror remake Faces of Death and the “indie sleaze” Canadian drama Mile End Kicks. But while her career is reaching new heights, Ferreira is getting vulnerable about the digital world that helped make her a star.
In a candid new conversation, Ferreira opened up about the “numbing” experience of living online. In Faces of Death, she plays a content moderator named Margo—a job she describes as “brutal” and psychologically taxing.
“We’re all just watching incredible violence all day without even noticing how much damage we’re doing to ourselves,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “You go on Twitter, you go on Instagram or X… all of a sudden you’re seeing people get bombed, people get shot. Real death.”
It’s a heavy topic for an actress who shot to fame during the height of the Euphoria social media frenzy. Now, as she approaches , Ferreira is actively trying to curate a more “mysterious” vibe to protect her craft.
“People don’t love actors who share too much on the internet either,” she admits. “I’m always trying to be mysterious, even though I’m extremely not mysterious in real life.”
She’s even ready to retire one specific title. “We got to hang it up being an Instagram baddie at some point,” she jokes, before reconsidering: “Maybe not for me. I’ll do it forever.”
Handling public opinion hasn’t always been easy. Having spent nearly half her life in the spotlight, Ferreira says she’s been receiving “unsolicited opinions” for years. While she admits the comments still hurt, she’s no longer “physically hiding” in her house.
“The more shit I get is probably because I’m doing something right,” she says. “I’m not scared anymore.”
Instead of scrolling through rage-bait comments, Ferreira is finding joy in the simpler side of technology—playing online Scrabble, Monopoly, and watching those aforementioned cooking clips. She’s also leaning into her real-life “commune,” a close-knit group of friends who move in and out of her home.
“I try to live in real life as much as possible,” she explains. “The internet is not real… it likes to gaslight you into thinking you’re something that you’re not.”
That yearning for a simpler time is what drew her to Mile End Kicks, a “period piece” set in Montreal. It’s an era she remembers fondly from her teen years in Brooklyn, before “surveillance culture” took over.
“People yearn for a time when it wasn’t so complicated,” she says. “Where you’re taking photo booth pictures and you’re posting your status. It’s not like you’re selling yourself on there to make your dreams come true.”
Whether she’s dodging the Janitor’s son or escaping the “dregs of the internet,” one thing is clear: Barbie Ferreira is navigating her fame on her own terms—and she’s doing it with plenty of heart.
