Devin Druid – 13 Reasons Why

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) Over the seasons we’ve seen Tyler evolve from victim to advocate. Have you had much of a say in that evolution?

A) Yeah, I think that since the beginning the show has very much been a collaborative process. Especially characters, we look back at the source material, which is like a three to four-hundred-page book that has now been adapted into a forty-nine episode – forty-nine hour – series. So, there is a lot of room for us, as actors, to play around with the characters. I was just talking with a reporter and telling him a similar thing where I think a really good example is someone like Ross [Butler]. He plays the character Zach and if you read the book when you were sixteen, maybe Zach wasn’t that kind of character but the way Ross has played him and added these subtleties of naivety yet also timidness and compassion and kindness in his friendship with Alex and the way he comes across. He had a hand in how that character has come across in the way that he found Zach and made him human and did that. I think we all definitely had collaborative efforts with the writers in our performances and how we decided these characters were going to be.

Q) Everyone knows what has bonded Clay and Tyler, but what continues to make Tyler so loyal?

A) Obviously what Clay (Dylan Minnette) did to save Tyler – putting himself in danger to help protect Tyler. As well as Tyler has seen Clay’s search for justice for Hannah (Katherine Langford) and him always trying to do the right thing and search for the truth and justice and take care of people around him. I think he’s incredibly motivating for someone like Tyler who has never had anyone there for him and now he is seeing this guy Clay go to the ends of the earth for other people. I think that’s incredibly inspiring to him and shows him the kind of person that Clay is and makes him want to be better. It makes him want to be more selfless and giving in the way Clay is. He is, of course, loyal to him and grateful to him because of what he has done for Tyler. I think Tyler went some through incredible trauma and when you become close with someone who helps you out of that and is understanding and empathetic about what you are going through and treats you like a human being that has a profound effect on you and how you view people and your relationship with them.

Q) Last season we saw Tyler getting more politically involved and speaking up for himself. What kind of fan response have you received to this arc?

A) The response to Tyler’s arc has been overwhelming and just incredibly gratifying and really hopeful. I’ve gotten lots of messages from mothers of sons and grown men who have come forward telling me that they went through something similar when they were younger and they never understood how to process what happened. They didn’t know how to talk about it and they always felt it was such a taboo and had never seen their story represented before. So, seeing their stories like that made them feel so validated and understood and like they weren’t alone. That there was a path forward with Tyler’s story. I think, especially in the past couple of years, sexual assault has really taken a forefront in conversations about how we treat other people and how we conduct businesses and who we employ and who we are friends with. I think this is about time. We need to be held accountable for our actions and to take care of each other. We need to make sure that abusers know that it is not going to be tolerated and they can’t continue on. And it’s only due to the incredible strength of survivors coming forward and telling their stories against all the stigma and against all the naysayers and victim blamers out there. It’s incredibly powerful and it’s helpful. And the ability to be the one that brings that conversation to an even larger crowd via this show was very daunting. I am proud of it and I hope I did it justice.

Q) From what have seen in previous seasons it seems Tyler’s parents care about him very much. What is it that makes him so uncomfortable to talk to them about what has been happening to him?

A) I think that Tyler is someone who doesn’t know communication very well. We’ve seen the amazing scenes and sequences where his family does care and they love him and support him and they really want what is best for him – even so far as in Season 2 we see that Tyler’s family sees he may have an interest in toy guns. So, they are like, “What is the safest way possible to handle this?” They show Tyler what an actual gun is like and give him guidance by a police offer (in Deputy Standall). This shows a responsible maturity and openness in the Down household. But it’s not always that easy with kids. It’s very difficult for teenagers to find that comfort and it takes time to solidify that open communication line with your parents. Especially as a kid, you don’t want to disappoint your parents. You don’t want to disappoint your family. You want to work hard for them and you want them to respect you. As well as an individual, as you’re growing older, it can be difficult. Especially when Tyler goes through trauma like that, he doesn’t know who he can turn to. He doesn’t know if anyone can understand what he’s been through. It’s incredibly difficult. I can’t even imagine what survivors go through in that inner turmoil and how to wrap around their heads what just happened to them.

Q) Going into Season 4, was there someone(s) you were hoping to share more scenes with?

A) Oh everybody. Absolutely. Everybody. Working with Alisha [Boe] and Dylan has been some of my favorite moments in the series. Working with Miles [Heizer] – I love his and Tyler’s friendship and how they’ve grown, especially now with the addition of the incredible Tyler Barnhardt as Charlie St. George who is just adorable. Ross as Zach, Grace [Saif] as Ani and Christian [Navarro] as Tony is all phenomenal. I had the pleasure of doing a couple more scenes with Deputy Standall (Mark Pellegrino). He’s just a hoot. I love that guy! That was a ton of fun. I don’t think there is any individual that I could point out. We just have such a talented cast that are amazing human beings and very fleshed out characters. It’s always really fun to throw my character in with someone else.

Q) With such intense scenes and subject matter, who did you shake off a long day of filming?

A) Lots of video games, definitely. After Season 2 I started writing and producing my own music just as kind of a catharsis and a diary for myself, I guess. So, if there was ever any emotion or feeling that I just couldn’t shake off it was pretty easy to just open up Ableton and be able to put some chords down – something that was reflecting the way that I was feeling. Even if it ended up being bad, just the ability to get it out of my system and on to something tangible and hear it back and just able to delete it and get rid of it was cathartic.

Q) What were some items of Tyler’s life that you took with you as memorabilia?

A) Oh, I took my cameras! I just remember they were such a lens of Tyler’s world and how he viewed things. Also, just as an actor having a tangible prop like that to get to work with, you grow an attachment to that because as I’m playing the character I have also grown an attachment to and a fondness to holding these cameras in my hand and being the character and using them as a mask to hide myself behind when Tyler is feeling vulnerable or in danger of something. Also, I would take a lot of photos on the camera during scenes just for my own benefit. I have all the memory cards from all of the photos I’ve taken over the years, which are some nice mementos over me. I made sure I got my cameras. I took Tyler’s Olympus camera and I also took his film camera – his Minolta. I got them both. I managed to snag them. Production was very, very kind to me this year. [chuckles] I was surprised that they let me, but I think that everyone understood how much they meant to me and that if I didn’t take them they’d either be sold to someone or sit in some warehouse for Paramount for years. I don’t think anyone else has as much of a connection as I do with these things.

Q) Do you think that with this group that Tyler has made lifelong friends?

A) They definitely have lifelong binds. I’d love to say that they’d be lifelong friends, but I don’t know the fast-forward for all the other characters and how they have to process everything that they’ve been through. Sometimes the way some people have to heal is that they have to move forward and go on a different path. I think Tyler definitely sees this group as his friends and his family and everyone looks out for each other. So, I’m going to say that they are lifelong friends.

Q) And your costars?

A) Oh, absolutely! For sure. Dylan and I were texting photos of our cats to one another.

Q) What have you personally taken away from your time working on “13 Reasons Why?”

A) On a technical level, there are so many things about this industry and being an actor and taking on roles and doing scenes and finding lights and hitting marks and doing movements and choreographing fight sequences and things. There has been so much that I’ve learned from a technical aspect over the years that I’m always going to carry with me as well as these more thoughtful, emotional and impactful things that I’ve now learned over the years. Like the importance of looking out for one another and being there for each other and being thoughtful and empathetic towards someone that you don’t know. That’s definitely something that I’ve carried with me. There is this incredible amount of things that I’ve had to learn about these things that happen to teenagers in schools now and what kid and people are dealing with from mental illness to sexual assault and abuse to gun violence and drug and substance abuse. I started the show when I was eighteen years old. I started home schooling when I was fifteen. So, I didn’t really get a high school experience. My time growing up and being the age of these characters, I was just incredibly naïve and innocent and I didn’t really have a full exposure to what other people could be dealing with across the country and across the world. So, it was eye opening to see the struggles that people face and how we can come together as human beings and be empathetic and treat each other right to help everyone else get through this.