’13 Reasons Why’ may be over, but its impact on Devin Druid is still deeply felt. The actor spoke with HL about saying goodbye to Tyler Down, the series finale scene that moved him, and more.
The final season of 13 Reasons Why premiered June 5, giving the beloved characters a send-off after 4 seasons. Devin Druid has been with the show since the first season playing Tyler Down. Tyler has faced incredible challenges over the years, but he emerged a stronger, empowered character. HollywoodLife talked with Devin about bidding farewell to the character that has played such a pivotal role in his life.
“You know, I keep getting asked that, and every time it still catches me off guard, but I just get brought back to that word of bittersweet,” Devin told HollywoodLife. “I don’t really know of a better way to describe it. I think we are so incredibly lucky to our incredible partners at Anonymous Content and Paramount and Netflix for allowing us 4 seasons of incredible experiences but also the opportunity to not get canceled early and to have that time to write our own ending and to have a conclusion to the story and these characters. I’m forever grateful and fortunate to have had that opportunity.”
Devin Druid as Tyler Down in ’13 Reasons Why.’ (Netflix)
He added: “Tyler will always be a part of me. I’m so protective of him, and I’m always gonna cherish him. I hope that fans enjoy it. I’m really excited to move on and see what’s next for me, but I’m always going to miss this.”
One of the most poignant scenes of the series finale is when Clay, Jessica, Tyler, Alex, Zach, Ani, Courtney, Charlie, and Ryan go to bury Hannah’s tapes where Clay first listened to them in season 1. Devin opened up about filming that scene and what it meant to him.
The characters of ’13 Reasons Why’ bury Hannah’s tapes in the series finale. (Netflix)
“It was crazy. That was one of the last days [of filming], and I remember standing up top on that hill before we were about to roll camera, and there was a giant tarantula on the box of tapes,” Devin revealed. “I kept freaking out and Grace [Saif], who plays Ani, She almost fell down that mountain trying to kick the tarantula. It was really scary. But it was an incredible moment after we bury the tapes, and everyone walks over to that fence and just overlooks the Bay Area where we’ve called our other home for the past 4 years. In that moment, I completely forgot we were filming, and I just took everything in and absorbed that moment because even outside of just the narrative of the story, the tapes represent a lot for us. Even just seeing that happen and then parting together as a family one more time, it was incredibly cathartic. It was a natural bookend.”
The series finale sent most of the characters off into the next chapters of their lives. Devin weighed in about the show’s ending. “It’s a finale, so it’s never easy to please everyone, especially a fan base as big as ours. But this season also had the least amount of episodes of any season, with 10 episodes this year versus our usual 13. Previous seasons of the show took place over the course of two weeks within the show, whereas this season is taking place over the course of 6 months. It’s a larger time-lapse with fewer episodes. It would have been nice, I think, for one more episode just so we’d have an even 50 episodes. Because as it stands right now we have 49, and it just irks the hell out of me. I think this show follows a natural progression of these characters and where they’ve been, and this season specifically takes a step back and looks at what have these characters gone through, how would they naturally react, and where did that lead them. Just like with previous seasons of the show, we tackled difficult subjects and real-life things and how they play out in the real world. It’s not always exactly what you’d want, but it tells an important story and educates a lot of people on a lot of different things happening.”
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
