13 Reasons Why actor reveals why he quit acting after it started to feel like 'just a job'
13 Reasons Why star Dylan Minnette has revealed why he's taken a break from acting.
Just a few years after landing his breakout role in the controversial Netflix series - which first aired in 2017 - Minnette decided to take a break from the world of film and TV and the 27-year-old has since spoken out about what it would take for him to return.
Minnette starred as Liberty High school student Clay Jensen in the American teen drama - who investigates why his classmate Hannah ended her own life.
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The series shocked viewers globally with its graphic depictions of potentially triggering subjects such as rape and suicide.
It was forced to add in trigger warnings before every episode, Netflix even later coming under pressure to remove the show from its platform altogether.
The series acted as Minnette's break-out role, however, it's also one of his most recent, the actor having gone on to star in 2022's Scream and 2022 mini-series The Dropout, but then deciding to take a break from acting.
And in an interview with Zach Sang, Minnette revealed why he had a change of heart.
Minnette said he definitely 'think[s] about' his acting career 'for sure' but it's not a completely straight forward answer when it comes to when he'd return.
In a clip of the interview posted to YouTube, he explains: "I think [I've] done it for so long, like a really long time and I was very fortunate to find success in it.
"I was on 13 Reasons Why and it was really popular and definitely reached a peak in like, so far, in what I'd had in acting.
"But it also started to feel like a bit of a job."
While Minnette says he's 'always' found acting 'fun' and 'really inspiring,' when it began to feel like 'just a job' he couldn't help but lean towards another passion instead.
"Wallows [a rock band Minnette is a part of] and music is like this passion that we've always had as a group to really take all the way, as far as we can," he says.
"And I was like, 'I think I'm in a position now where I can just kind of like do that for a while and get this the farthest it can be and the only way that's going to happen is if I put my 100 percent time and energy into it and take it very seriously and show the world [...] we're a real band'."
Minnette adds he's 'incredibly privileged and lucky' he found himself in a position to be able to take a break and focus on his music career instead, noting he's 'following what feels inspiring'.
But this doesn't mean he's ruling out returning to his acting career in the future, noting he did want to do an acting job last year, but it ended up being when the SAG-AFTRA strikes occurred.
Minnette jokes he's told his manager it'll happen in '2026' and says he'll 'think about it as a concept one day' but has to 'do this first'.
He resolves: "I'm starting to feel like I have something to give artistically and creatively in other fields than just music now, I do feel like I have something to give and that's probably acting.
"At some point when we've fulfilled out Wallows duties and we're ready to take a break as a band or just take a second, that's when I feel like I'll have the perfect inspiration to do something."
Topics: 13 Reasons Why, Celebrity, Film and TV, US News, Netflix, Music
Poppy Bilderbeck