Right before the second season of "Euphoria" premiered on HBO in January, Zendaya warned fans that the storyline was going to be "difficult to watch."
As viewers observed the entire season up until the finale last Sunday, we saw Zendaya's character, Rue, fall back into drugs, Sydney Sweeney's character, Cassie, get into a fight with her best friend after having a meltdown, and Barbie Ferreira’s character, Kat Hernandez, fall out of love with her boyfriend, Ethan (Austin Abrams).
With so many interesting storylines, some fans thought Ferreira got the short end of the stick, especially since Kat found herself sexually as a cam girl in season one and ended the show on a high note with Ethan.
However, in season two, fans barely saw Kat at all. She's mostly seen helping Maddy (Alexa Demie) get over her ex after Cassie steals him away.
One person tweeted, "Rue’s dad has been dead since the first season and STILL has had more screen time than kat."
Another person said, "Euphoria be loosing so much by not giving Barbie/kat a better storyline bc she serves in looks every time."
While thinking about how much her storyline has changed, Ferreira told TODAY that she and director Sam Levinson agreed that Kat needed to experience something different in season two.
"I think what was hard about season one was that me and Sam were trying to figure out how to continue a storyline that kind of had a beginning, middle and end of sorts. We didn't want to be redundant," Ferreira said at the opening of Coors Light's Plastic-Free Future Mart pop-up shop in New York City.
"We didn't want it to be like continuing the camming because I feel like that was a point in time where Kat just accidentally got into the wrong side of the internet for someone her age," she continued. "And she was exploring herself in ways that maybe wasn't, and as everyone in 'Euphoria' is, as productive. I mean, what is productive as a teenager? But I think it was trying to find a way of showing Kat's eternal restlessness is always what kind of motivates her. She's never satisfied with what's happening around her."
"A lot of the characters, it's kind of this restlessness, whether it be for drugs, or tension, or sex or something. It's more of like, how do we strip that down because Kat's confidence at the end of season one wasn't real. It was more of a projection of what she thought she needed to do to kind of save herself from all the bad things that were happening to her," Ferreira added.
One of Kat's most memorable scenes in season two was when she awkwardly broke up with her boyfriend by falsely telling him that she had terminal brain cancer. Although Ethan called her out for lying and stormed out of the restaurant in anger, Ferreira said that scene was still hard to shoot because of how sincere Abrams looked in that moment.
"Austin was so sweet. He was, like, crying during the scene and I was like, I just feel bad even while doing it because Kat is a very cynical person and she doesn't know how to confront people and has never been in a situation like this, and also feels bad for not being into someone who is so nice to her," she said.
"So I think that was her way of like, literally going bananas and just being like, 'I have no idea how to get out of this,'" Ferreira added.
"I mean, Ethan obviously sees right through the bulls--- and he was just like, I'll just save you the stress. I'll do it myself, which I think, at the end of the day, is what Kat wanted was for him to just do it himself," she said.
In early February, HBO confirmed that "Euphoria" will be renewed for a third season. Fans will finally get to see what happens to the beloved cast of the teen drama show, especially since Kat's storyline left off with her supporting Maddy after she got into an altercation with Cassie.
Although the script is still being written, Ferreira said she doesn't know what she wants to happen to Kat in season three.
"I actually have no idea," she laughed. "I don't know where to go from here."
What she does know is where she wants to take her career in the next five years.
One role she isn't currently pursuing is that of Madonna, in the Material Girl's upcoming biopic — despite recent rumors, she told TODAY, "That is absolutely untrue."
But as a rising star, Ferreira isn’t holding back from doing anything she wants to do.
"I want to do it all," she said. "I have a lot of interests."
"For me, the main thing is, of course, I want to be acting in cool projects that I really like so that's the basis."