Dior Goodjohn says she was “born” to play Clarisse La Rue in Disney+’s Percy Jackson. Why? Her mother is *literally* an Aries!
The young actress sat down with J-14, where she spoke to us about how she and her character are the “same person,” scaring Walker Scobell with one scream and what she’s most excited to see in (the not-yet-confirmed) season 2!
Keep reading for our exclusive interview.
PJO fans, don’t worry — Dior and the rest of the Percy Jackson cast have seen your TikTok edits.
“It’s been so fun. We actually send all the edits that are being made to the group chat back and forth, and we pin our favorite ones against each other — or at least that’s what I think we’re doing in my head,” Dior told J-14 exclusively, explaining that the majority of the Percy Jackson audience are Gen Z, the same as the cast, so she’s loving the humor.
“The amount of times that I’ve seen guys like ‘Dior needs to come home, the kids miss her.’ It’s actually insane and hilarious, [and] I love it so much.”
While Dior appears to have materialized out of the Percy Jackson universe by author and coshowrunner Rick Riordan himself — she actually was helping a friend out with their audition for the Disney+ adaptation before realizing Clarisse could be hers.
“One of my friends, a couple months before I got my audition, was auditioning to be in the show, and I was reading with them for their audition,” she revealed. “And I was looking at the script and I was like, ‘Oh, this would be so cool to audition for, but I don’t know if I would be the typical pick. I don’t know if I would get an audition for this.’
She continued, “And then lo and behold, I did. So from that moment I felt like it was a sign and I knew I had to go hard.”
It definitely helped that Dior heavily related to the daughter of the war god, as well.
“As much as I love and hate to say it, [Clarisse and I] definitely are parallels,” she revealed. “We are the same person, a little bit low-key. I don’t like making people feel bad as much as she does. But yeah, I mean, I’m half Persian, so we get a little feisty.”
Dior’s also literally the daughter of an Aries, y’all.
“My mom is an Aries astrologically as well. I was kind of just born for this, if I’m being honest,” she joked.
The 17-year-old also delved into the “toxic” father-daughter relationship between Clarisse and Ares.
“It is such complex situation. I mean, for Clarisse, it’s like ‘I’m my father’s favorite daughter.’ But the issue with that is is that I’m still a girl. I’m still a daughter. And along with that, he doesn’t really like his kids to begin with. And so it’s a constant battle of hating him, but needing his validation and wanting to please him so bad because it’s the only thing that I’ve ever known.”
That being said, we had to ask Dior about *that* scream in episode two, after Percy (played by Walker) destroyed Clarisse’s spear — the only gift given to her by her father.
“It was planned — but what I will say is that I guess people weren’t aware that I was going to scream so loud.”
One of those people being Walker, who has hilariously recounted how frightened he was of Dior in that scene in multiple interviews since — something he didn’t reveal to her at the time!
“[I found out] through the internet and then I called Walker,” Dior recalled. “I was like, ‘Dude, why didn’t you tell me?’ And he was like, ‘It was good. I wanted you to stay in it.'”
And although their characters aren’t particular fond of one another, that couldn’t be further from the truth of Walker and Dior IRL.
“I love Walker. That’s my man right there,” she gushed. “I think he’s the funniest 15-year-old. I know. It’s actually insane. He’s trying to teach me how to play Fortnite right now so we can stream Fortnite for everybody. But yeah, no, me and Walker, we’re cool. We’re tight. I love that guy.”
As for the not-yet-confirmed season 2, which if all goes to plan, will follow the plot of the second Percy Jackson book, The Sea of Monsters — where Clarisse is set to take on a much bigger role.
“I really want to scream and crawl up the walls and do all the things, but I’m cautiously optimistic,” she said of season 2. “I’m trying to keep my cool about it and go with the flow and see how things happen. But I’m doing all the homework already right now.”
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