While walking the blue carpet in Malta ahead of the Mediterrane Film Festival’s Golden Bee Awards on Sunday, Barbie Ferreira said she was feeling a little shy about taking the stage later that night.

The Euphoria breakout had been tapped to receive a rising star award — one of a handful of trophies handed out during a program that featured fellow honorees like Russell Crowe and producer Jeremy Thomas — and after settling her nerves, had come to look at the shine like validation that she’s on the right path. “I feel really great about the fact that other people are seeing that I’m taking chances and doing indie films and theater, and I’m glad that people really like it. I’ve been doing things that fulfill me.”

That run includes the Broadway show Cult of Love and recent films like House of Spoils opposite Ariana DeBose, Bob Trevino Likes It opposite John Leguizamo and Jordan Peele’s Nope. She next stars in a modern take on the cult horror classic Faces of Death, and Ferreira said her instincts are calling her to work with “people who have fresh ideas, their own style and who are really good at creating their own perspective and [point of view] in the world.”

Ferreira said she’s feeling “free” in her career at the moment by being able to produce material and go after stories that she finds creatively fulfilling. She wouldn’t have arrived at that place had it not been for the breakout success of Sam Levinson’s Euphoria, on which she played high school cam girl Kat. (She recently told People that it was a “mutual” decision to exit the show despite fan speculation.)

“It informed everything,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was my first job and so I learned so much about myself, who I am as an actor and what I want to do. It was so fun and weird to be on a show that just blows up. All of a sudden, you’re 22 and, like, what? I had no idea what to do. It was a really great crash course with the whole aspect of people watching your show and coming up to you. In that aspect, it was very jarring for me. Now I feel free in a way where I get to really do what I want, and I get to produce stuff that I like and be in these stories that I probably wouldn’t have had time for if I were on the show. It’s been really great.”