If you’ve watched 13 Reasons Why by now, then you now Dylan Minnette is the most perfect person to bring Clay Jensen from the pages of Jay Asher’s novel to our TV, laptop and any mobile device where you can stream Netflix-screens. Dylan was the embodiment of Clay: unsure of himself, angry, sad, anxiety-ridden, not always able to effectively communicate yet with a heart of gold and truly sweet soul who does all he can to do the right thing. Well, in an interview with RAW conducted by his real-life leading lady, girlfriend Kerris Dorsey, Dylan explains that he didn’t even actual read the book until after he was done filming the first season, in order to make this character completely his own.
“I’m thankful that I didn’t read [until] afterwards just because I was Clay for so long, and then reading it, it just… I felt like I was inside the book and I felt responsible and I felt how you’re supposed to feel when you read that book. There’s no world where I would’ve been taken out of it at all,” Dylan said.
Interesting, right? Especially since he worked on this project for more than half a year and basically everyone who watched it literally sat and binged it all within a few days, something he even finds a tad bit strange.
‘It honestly is very weird. I worked over six and a half months, just as everybody did. And the fact that everyone can just watch it all in a day… But hey, it’s out there forever and new people will be watching it forever, so it is a long lasting product,” Dylan said. He went to explain that the cast really does get along so well — which you would hope since they all spent so much time together— but there is one person he hopes gets less screen time in Season 2: himself.
“Everyone really loves each other and it really is a family now at this point. I want to see other people do more on the show. I want to see more stories from the other characters and Clay can take a seat on the sidelines,” Dylan explained. Leave it to Kerris to remind him that is most likely not going to happen since besides Hannah, Clay is the min character. Oh, and his thoughts on Clay and Hannah’s heartbreaking love story? He’s right there with us.
“Yeah, if you just took the flashbacks of Clay and Hannah, it would just be, besides Romeo and Juliet, the saddest, little, most awkward, tragic love story ever,” Dylan said.
The most perfect description.
Watch: Behind-the-Scenes of 13 Reasons Why:
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