♪ How far does the dark go? ♪
- What are you gonna do about that?
(upbeat music)
- [Crystal Bell] Talk to me a little bit,
what was it like going into season two
knowing that season one was such a hit?
I could imagine that it made going out
as a cast really hard.
- It had me in the... - For a bit.
- Yeah, for me, I think that was part of the beauty
of making season one is that we had absolutely no idea
if anyone was going to watch it,
if anyone was going to care about it,
if anyone was going to talk about it,
so we were just kind of making the story for ourselves,
and trying to make the best thing possible,
and that's all that mattered, so going into season two,
I was hoping that on everyone's part
it was the same feeling that we were just going into it
trying to make something great again,
not even thinking about the outside world
or what people should expect or nothing,
but how many eyes are going to be on it,
which is easy to think about while you're making it,
but just trying to put that aside
and just focus on making a great story again,
so that's what I think honestly, but...
- Yes. - Yeah.
- A lot more people cared though.
- Well, again, when people see going out as a cast, though,
must have been really hard,
'cause when people see you together
they'll probably immediately freak out.
- Yeah, a little bit.
There were a couple of times where we'd just be
grocery shopping at Costco or Target
or Wal-Mart or something and we would just
have people recognize us and it was a weird thing, too,
as someone who's never had to go through that,
'cause it's like, "I'm just getting some cheese.
You don't need to get a picture, it's not that special."
But then it's also very sweet the things that people
will say to you and how the story has impacted their lives,
so yeah, it's great, too.
- On the flip side of that, I went to a Green Day concert,
by myself, but I thought I was so famous, and I was like,
"Oh my God, this is gonna be so bad,
everyone's gonna recognize me."
And I did take a few photos after the concert was done,
but then this couple turned to me and was like,
"Can I get a photo?"
And I'm like no (laughing), and then they were like,
"You're not gonna take a photo of me?
I just want to get a photo
with me and my husband." (laughing)
My friends started laughing at me,
so that was big reality check.
- Yeah, I remember right after the show came out,
Tim and I saw Chance the Rapper in San Diego,
and right after the concert ended,
we got mobbed with people to the point
where stadium security had to pull us aside
and take us to a VIP room to make sure that we were okay.
It was so weird. - Damn, Alicia.
- You're saying you're more popular than your co-star?
- Oh yeah, oh yeah. - Okay.
(laughing)
- Look, Alicia, I'm just saying.
- One more story, please. (laughing)
- I don't go out.
- I think for you guys, the challenge must have been,
'cause you went through season one,
you feel like you know your character, you're like,
"Okay, I'm building this character,
I know exactly who Zach is, I know exactly who Jessica is."
And you're getting these scripts for season two
and you're like, "Whoa, I didn't know anything at all,
'cause everything's turning on me."
What was that like?
- I think that's kind of the beauty of it, honestly,
is that we have this ability to explore these characters
and to build more of them.
- It's exciting as an actor.
You wanna be surprised and you
wanna be inspired by the scripts,
and we have a great writing staff.
Do one of you guys wanna say something?
- Dylan's a diva, he's making me hold the microphone
as answers the question, sorry.
- I've answered already. - His hands are insured.
- Nope. (laughing)
- Nope.
Okay, yeah. (laughing)
What is the question? (laughing)
- Why doesn't Ross? - I did.
Okay, alright. (laughing)
- Can I get some professional help, please?
- What was the question? (laughing)
Oh, characters and knowing. - Not knowing.
- Not knowing. - Yeah.
Thinking that you know your character,
but not really knowing them. - Right, okay.
So I knew what was gonna happen with my character,
but I didn't know when and how and so then,
I also didn't wanna tell anybody else
so that when we went to the table read,
we'd all experience it together and yeah, that was fun.
At the table reads we'd be like (gasps), "What?"
And then that was great. - Yeah.
- That was a great recreation of our expressions.
- You already knew about Zach and Hannah.
- Yes. - But these guys didn't.
So who was the most surprised by that development?
- I knew early on, I knew early on.
Thanks guys, that was the one secret
that Brian told me early on and I was just
immediately super intrigued and also nervous
about how, thank you, Clay would react to that,
and I think the reaction that he gives
when he goes and confronts Zach about it
is... (laughing)
I think you'd expect from Clay,
but is also really out of line.
Hannah was her own person and can make her own decisions.
Clay just couldn't handle that truth,
and all those elements of truth definitely
take a toll on Clay to the point that he doesn't even
think he knows what the truth is anymore,
but yeah, I know a lot of it was really surprising.
A lot of it was surprising for Clay, for me as well.
I mean, I knew Clay was gonna go on
some sort of downward spiral, but I didn't think he'd be
ending up outside of Bryce's house with a gun to his head.
And that was definitely difficult to shoot,
but I think it made sense for Clay.
I mean, he's got a lot of inner demons, but yeah, anyway.
- I have to say though, Ross, episode six
was one of my favorites, because it also totally felt
a little different than the rest of the season.
I kind of made a comment today that it's
literally the teen rom-com that we deserve.
I need an entire season dedicated
to the Zach and Hannah year, the summer of Zach and Hannah.
What was that like working with Catherine on that,
'cause you guys had such a great dynamic,
and it did feel a little bit more jovial than maybe
the rest of the season. - Yeah.
- It was a nice little intermission
in the middle of the season.
It was great, 'cause Cat and I,
just like with everyone else,
we bonded over the last two years of knowing each other,
and we kind of have similar senses of humor,
so it made shooting awkward sex scenes a lot more fun
and not as awkward, so yeah,
it was just an all around good time.
We got to eat ice cream and walk
and hold hands and fun stuff.
(laughing) - Fun stuff.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- That's so cute.
- Had your Dawson's Creek moment by the pier,
it was great. - Yeah.
- Cool. - Dawson's Creek.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Dating ourselves. - Never watched it.
(laughing) - Sorry, I'm old.
- There's a creek involved, then I'm sure there's a dock.
- Love Dawson. - Dawson and her creek.
(laughing)
- Similarly, though, Dylan, Clay's relationship with Hannah
really changes this season, because obviously,
he sees her as an apparition, as this figure.
Finding that dynamic, so you and Catherine had built up
such a great relationship in that first season,
and then I think it changed in the second season.
What was it like, the changing nature of their relationship?
- Yeah, it was definitely a task in terms of
just figuring out what's the best way
to play the dynamic between Clay and Hannah this season
when Hannah's purely in Clay's mind,
'cause in season one, you're not just telling the story
of Clay in the present day listening to the tapes,
you're also telling the story for Clay and Hannah,
showing how their relationship evolved and how it fell apart
in its own kind of separate story,
its own show in its own right.
This season didn't really have any guidelines.
Hannah was a reflection of Clay's thoughts
and it was his conscience and it was like,
how do you navigate that?
It was a big team effort with Brian, the showrunner,
and Michael Morris in particular,
one of the directors who came and sort of
shot all those scenes with us.
It was a lot of work, but Catherine's so great
and talented and makes it really easy
to play off of her at those scenes, but it's tricky.
You don't want it to play too much like she's a ghost
and you don't want it to play too somber,
because then it just feels extremely melodramatic,
and it's kind of hard for it not to feel
a little melodramatic, but we wanted it
to feel real for the most part.
You wanted it to feel like how Clay and Hannah
would actually be conversing in these situations
to make her really feel like who Clay remembers her as.
And that's why it makes it so much harder
to live with her there, especially when she starts
just reciting Bryce to him later on,
it's just spiraling out of control,
and it's just all a reflection of how tortured Clay is,
what a tortured soul he is.
But by the end of the season, I think Clay is
finally on some sort of path to recovery
and maybe he will find peace one day, but I'm not sure.
We'll see.
- Yeah, he has a brother now, very excited about that.
- Exactly, yeah, crazy.
- I especially love that development.
Devon though, again, your performance this season,
truly incredible. - Thank you.
- I know you've all individually talked about
how Brian would talk to you about your storylines
and your character arcs, so when Brian told you
what a real tragic turn Tyler would take this season,
what were your initial reactions?
What went through your head?
- I remember the first time Brian had talked to me
about Tyler's storyline and it was actually last year,
when we were doing season one.
I remember specifically, we had just gotten the script
for I think 11 and 12, so we were
shooting nine and 10, I believe,
and I got the scripts for 11 and 12,
and as soon as I'm reading in 12,
there's a scene where Tyler buys the handgun,
and I was kind of immediately shocked.
And at the same time, I was like,
"Why does this make so much sense for this character
for this to be the route that he's going down?"
And so Brian asked if he could speak with me
and we talked and he was basically like,
"So, if we get a season two, we're thinking that
maybe Tyler's storyline would devolve into
a storyline regarding gun violence
and the sort of implications of that."
And Brian was always really interested
in the mental health and the psychology
behind a young man who's thinking about
committing such a tragic thing,
and making such a dangerous choice,
rather than the worst possible way it could turn out.
And I think he'd even told me
that the writer's room was working on this in April
before we'd even started season one,
so that's like April of 2016 this idea has been in place,
so getting to season two, it's very intimidating
to have to embody such an unfortunately common issue,
especially for young people these days.
But you also have to think about the fact that
these tragedies are happening so frequently,
yet for some reason, they're talked about
for two, three weeks and then the flame kind of burns out
and no one seems to care anymore.
So, us as a show, from season one,
I can't speak for my friends here,
but when I started season one,
I didn't really realize how much
of a social impact it was gonna be.
For me, I thought that we were just doing
a young adult series that was going to be
an adaptation of a book, but as an actor, it fulfilled me,
because I did have an emotional connection with it,
and that's what you want as a performer.
You wanna make something that people
can connect to emotionally, but I don't think it was until
after this show came out that I realized
the impact that it actually had
and how it was actually helping people.
So then, going into season two,
especially with this story line,
I was like, "This is a topical thing."
And hopefully this can, again, be a platform
for engaging that conversation with young people
and for the conversation that's happening right now
to hopefully keep it going and keep it relevant
so that it doesn't die out so that we can
hopefully work towards a solution for it.
- And then, finally, and this is for all of you,
'cause you're all in one of my favorite
scenes of the season. - I'm not.
- You're not, that's true, I apologize.
It's the dance.
It's the scene that happens at the dance.
I think fans have really... - It's a beautiful scene.
I was on set for it and I think we had the tent outside
with the TV on it with a live feed
and I was watching it and his performance
and the looks on their faces,
especially as soon as Tony realizes what song is on,
and that level of empathy and care for your friends
is something that I think really shines in this season
as characters learn how to be there for each other
and have that sense of community.
And watching it happen, even knowing these guys
as being actors and my friends,
watching them as their characters be there for someone else,
it was really heartwarming.
It made me tear up a little bit just watching.
- It's a funny thing, though, because
I know when you're filming it,
and I've been on set, they're not playing any music,
but you're so clearly emoting
to the emotions of that song.
- They played that song.
- That was actually the one time they did
play the song in full.
- There was no dialogue. - 'Cause there's no dialogue.
So we actually were listening to the song in that moment,
but you're right, normally it's very awkward,
there's no music playing for the rest of the dance.
There was really no music playing,
we're just yelling all of these lines
in front of all of these people and you're just like,
"God, I'm being so judged right now."
- They did do that very well.
The shooting of that moment, they handled that very well.
(laughing)
They handled that very well.
The shooting of that scene, they were very diligent
about taking care of all of us
and even the extras that we had, the 200 plus extras,
they were very dedicated to that moment,
and they know the import of that song, too,
so I think everyone was in the same space for that.
- Yeah, Courtney, or Michelle who plays Courtney, and I,
we were talking about it and we were like,
for us to cry, we just looked at Tony,
'cause when you broke into the circle and you hugged Clay,
we're just like, "Oh, man, the tough guy is breaking."
- There were lots of Tony tears on my jacket.
(laughing)
- I'm about to tear up just thinking about it.
- My jacket was stained a little.
- Look at that, what a friendship.
Well, this is awkward.
- You all love each other, I love it.
- Our jackets are stained with each other's tears.
(laughing)
- I feel like that's very appropriate for 13 Reasons Why.
Well, it was a beautiful scene.
Dylan, you did a great job. - Thanks.
- Looking for Justin. - Thanks, everybody was great.
Everybody's great this season.
Surely, now that's something I'll add.
What my favorite thing of this entire season is
all the performance from everyone here
and everyone else in the cast.
I just think everyone completely brought it this year
and I'm proud to be working alongside these folks so much.
- I didn't really realize how much more talented
a group of people could be, it's insane.
- The Beatles...
- Except you. - I know.
- Wow. - I'm sorry, I'm trying.
It's really hard.
I'm really young and I'm trying my best and I'm sorry.
(laughing) I sounded really country.
- Thank you guys.
- That was the most sarcastic sorry I've ever heard.
(laughing) - Thank you guys so much.