This sequence involved none of the above — just Schafer in character as Jules, a locked door and a devastating fear of what awaited on other side.

The harrowing dream sequence occurs near the end of Friday’s “Euphoria” special, which sees Jules in a prolonged state of vulnerability and introspection.

During the intense nightmare, Jules arrives at her imaginary New York City apartment to find her high school soulmate, Rue (Zendaya), alone and unresponsive in their bathroom.

“It was kind of like letting the worst of Jules’ imagination take over,” Schafer says during a video call from New York City.

“Which was really difficult, because even I personally love Rue so deeply and do not like to think about the images that I had to come up with in my head and sit with for that scene.”.

“Sam is super collaborative and has been from the beginning,” Schafer says.

“Taking that to the next level with really having a hand in what [Jules is] saying — and also in an episode that allows us to stay with her for a much longer period of time than we’d ever been able to in Season 1 — it was just really exciting.”.

With HBO’s gritty teen drama ‘Euphoria,’ stars Zendaya and Hunter Schafer aren’t afraid to raise eyebrows.

With HBO’s gritty teen drama ‘Euphoria,’ stars Zendaya and Hunter Schafer aren’t afraid to raise eyebrows.

“Nobody is getting their head cut off,” Zendaya says.

While brainstorming dialog for the hourlong character study, Schafer and Levinson took turns pretending to be Jules and her therapist, imagining what might come up in conversation between a counselor and a 17-year-old in crisis.

“I would say a lot of the episode — particularly the therapy session — was birthed out of us just riffing and maybe accidentally falling into character while we were on the phone talking,” Schafer says.

Really, we were just acting on the phone, and I found that to be so useful and also fun to contribute to the script.”.

The collaboration was therapeutic, not only for Jules but for Schafer, who struggled with adjusting to life in quarantine.

Production on Season 2 of “Euphoria” was postponed just three days before it was scheduled to begin in March and a “maybe too optimistic” Schafer hadn’t anticipated spending months in isolation.

We all just surrendered to quarantine and stewing in our homes.”.

“Having to really sit with myself and not having an objective was terrifying and brought up a lot of things maybe I hadn’t processed yet,” she says.

It sucked at the time because it was really kind of a crash and burn, but I’m so thankful for it.”.

Shortly after Levinson penned the series’ first holiday special, starring Zendaya as Rue, he and Schafer began generating ideas for a followup from Jules’ perspective.

“It was about this strange spiral I was having about hormone therapy and making an analogy between learning how to find beauty within yourself,” says Schafer, who, like her character, is trans.

“She is, rightfully so, going through a questioning of [herself] and the decisions [she’s] made before — not because they were wrong in any way but just because she is evolving as a human and is coming to understand herself in a deeper way,” Schafer says.

“Jules actively does not think about that a lot because it’s something that bothers her and hurts her,” Schafer says of Jules’ mother’s absence.

The end of Friday’s episode sees Rue and Jules (affectionately dubbed #Rules by fans) briefly reconnect for the first time since the Season 1 finale.

“I know Jules would have done anything to be held by or hold Rue again in that moment, after everything that happened,” Schafer says.

Though their midpandemic material has been heavy, even by “Euphoria” standards, Schafer was eager to return to set opposite Zendaya, fresh off her historic lead actress win at the 2020 Emmy Awards

“But she’s also the scene partner that I’ve spent the most time with and have shared the most with emotionally, so I always feel really comfortable with her and excited to see what happens because we both love our characters so much and we love their connection.”

It remains unclear when Schafer will be able to revisit Jules — no announcements have been made about when the sophomore season will resume production

“It was really special, being able to put that much of yourself into one singular product.”