Grown up as they may be, with their overlapping dialogue and whispered offhand remarks, the Dahl kids wear their childhood wounds on their sleeves, even as the family spontaneously bursts into song. Serving as the audience’s stand-in is Loren (Ferreira), a young woman Johnny is sponsoring in Narcotics Anonymous. A complete outsider to the family, she is puzzled by the Dahls—and unafraid to ask blunt questions.
Ferreira, who starred as Kat Hernandez on the first two seasons of HBO’s Euphoria, hadn’t done live theater in years when she took on the part—yet she wasn’t scared off by the challenge. “It was so nerve-wracking and I love things that challenge me,” she says.
Vogue spoke to the New York native about returning to her home turf, joining Cult of Love’s strange and sprawling family, and how she likes to spend her time offstage. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Vogue: Tell me about how you came to Cult of Love. Were you familiar with Leslye Headland’s previous work?
Barbie Ferreira: I love Leslye. Russian Doll! I’d heard so many great things about her and when I got the script, I was in a place where I was doing a lot of indie movies and producing them. But then I got this opportunity, and it was something I hadn’t even planned to do, but it was so wonderful and the script was so good. Meeting Leslye and Trip, it just all clicked, and I was like, Oh my gosh, okay. I’m gonna try my hand at the stage.
What were your first impressions when you read the script?
For me, what really stood out was just how accurate it was to people that I love and the way their family dynamics are. I’ve been the outsider in a dynamic like that, where I’ve walked in, and I’m Brazilian, and there’s this American Christianity kind of passive-aggressiveness and politeness. So when I read it, it was so real. Especially my character, who is not part of the Dahl family and is an outsider experiencing it—I felt really connected to that, because I’ve been in situations where I feel like everything I said was wrong. Leslye writes from her heart, and [the script] is based a lot on her upbringing, and those tend to be the scripts I gravitate toward because they feel emotional and truthful. So reading it was absolutely wonderful. I laughed. I cried. I was blown away. She’s such a wonderful writer.
