13 Reasons Why's Justin Prentice Breaks Down Controversial Ending

Hey, what's up, guys? We're hanging out in the Young Hollywood studio with the very talented Justin Prentice. How's it going?

It's going really well. How are you doing?

I'm so glad to meet you in person because I'm such a big fan of the show.

Thank you.

Wait, you've had a you've had a really good acting career. You were on a lot of different shows. You were on Glee.

I've Yeah, I was. I've I've bounced around a little bit. I've been I've been around town for for a few years now.

So how did you know when you first wanted to get into acting?

I think I was like six years old in a parking lot like rollerblading with my mom and I was like, I want to be an actor. She was like, why? Cuz look at me, girl, mom. I think look at my rollerblade skills. They're the skills of an actor. And uh, yeah, I don't know. I just something bit me and then I got into uh community theater in Tennessee and then that was that was it.

Yeah, you're from Tennessee, right?

I am.

So what's that like being from Tennessee and then living out here in LA?

It's great. It's different. It's a different vibe. I try and get back and visit as much as I can. Nashville's changed a lot. Great country music. Which is awesome. My parents give me crap because they're like, you could have just done that. And I was like, oh well.

Can you sing? Can you be a country singer?

Yeah, kind of. I don't know. I'd do it alone by myself. I've been auto tune now. I mean Yeah, so then totally. Yeah, it's not a big deal.

But we had your um we had your castmate Christian Navarro here a couple days ago. He called you out.

What?

He said that you call him Chrissy.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's my He's my little Chrissy. Justin Prentice, I hate you. I'll just say Justin Prentice calls me Chrissy and he's the only person on this planet that is allowed to do that. He's like a he's a serious guy. He is. Yeah. I think that's why I call him that just because make him laugh a little bit. Yeah, because why not? Yeah.

Yeah, that's great. This show though is is so amazing. I'm so addicted. What is it about your character that you think sticks out to everybody?

He sucks. He sucks quite a bit. I think

You're nothing like him.

No, I try not to be.

So you're a great actor.

Well, thank you, I guess. He's um, I don't know. He's kind of this encapsulation of all of the bad guys in high school, I suppose. So yeah, we tried to kind of bring him to life realistically, but yeah, he does some pretty atrocious things.

Now you play a bully. Have you ever experienced bullying yourself when you were younger in school?

Yeah, I remember I was on a basketball team and and there were these two twins who were bigger than I was and there were some

The twins.

Yeah, there were two of them. Like what do I do? There are two of them. And it's the South, so my parents were like, we'll just tell them that you'll beat him up. And I was like, you think that'll work? And they're like, yeah, totally, sure, give it a shot. I was like, hey, back off or I'll beat you up, which I don't know if that's the way to go, but it worked then. They they laid off.

Okay, so then that's good. So you've experienced it yourself. We all have experienced it before.

Yeah, I think we've all been through some form of bullying.

How do you guys keep it light on set though when you cover such serious topics?

You know, we're all kind of in our own zones when we're doing really heavy days of shooting, but most of the time we try and just laugh between takes and and have a good time and make each other crack up and we have We have a lot of fun.

Is it weird though since you're the the bully, the tough guy at school, and then to be friends with them on set but then have to be so mean to them when you're acting? Like, what's up with your posse, like loser? Like, how do you do that? You know.

Yeah. I think I think it helps, honestly. There's a scene like with Devin at the lockers where I'm kind of, you know, being hard on him. And and I think it makes it easier to jump into it because I know he knows that I don't feel that way about him. So it kind of gives you the liberty to just kind of go for it.

You take a lot of heat on Twitter too, don't you? It's like people think you are your character and they tweet at you and they

Yeah, which I take it as a compliment, I guess.

Yeah. Do you do a good job?

I guess so. If people are like, oh my gosh, I just love Bryce. He's so fun. Then I probably screwed up my job, so. Like no, you're not supposed to love Bryce.

A lot of people are are are giving the show a little heat about the the court hearing and the outcome of the court hearing.

Yeah.

Why do you think the show chose for the outcome to be that way?

Unfortunately, it's realistic. The Brock Turner case, I think there's so many parallels between our show and that case specifically. It's kind of the, you know, the powerful white male with with a lot of money in the family, you know. Um and it's it's too realistic and it sucks, but, you know, that's the job of our show is to paint things in a in a realistic manner.

With young kids watching the show, do you think that they take it too seriously and and they're going to emulate that sort of behavior or do you think it's just they know it's a show?

I wouldn't think so. I mean, they are dramatized events. You know, it is all it's all fictional, but we try and make it, you know, realistic with our moments. And I and I and I think kids understand that. And we've gotten a lot of positive feedback about parents and kids, you know, both, you know, reaching out saying, you know, we're excited to see these different sides of the issues, the different facets of it. It gives us this sort of medium to talk to each other, kind of bridges the gap between parents and kids, which I think is beautiful. If you're going through a very, very tough time in your life right now, it might not be the best show. There can be some some triggering scenes in it. But I think at the end of the day, it definitely does more good than it does harm.

Now, who stays really serious on set and who's the biggest goofball on set? Who plays all the pranks? Is it you?

Probably. It's like It's probably me or Ross who plays Zach or maybe Tim who plays Monty. The three of us are kind of the the jokers, I think, on set.

It was so great to meet you in person. Such a friendly guy, you guys. Love it. Thanks so much.

Thank you.