'13 Reasons Why' Star Brandon Flynn Opens Up About His Drug Use & The Character He Relates To The Most

'13 Reasons Why' Star Brandon Flynn Opens Up About His Drug Use & The Character He Relates To The Most

Brandon Flynn doesn’t relate at all to his 13 Reasons Why character Justin.

“When I was in middle school, I dealt a lot with people not being cool with me being into acting. They [kids] thought it was feminine,” he explains in a new interview. “They thought I should be in sports. I was chunky, so I got made fun of for that. It was hard. It put me in a dark space of not wanting to be myself and trying to be what others wanted me to be.”

When you’re bullied like that at a young age, it definitely hurts and what happened after is something that Brandon isn’t alone in.

“I self-medicated a lot; I did a lot of drugs and I chose to quiet my truth and alter my perception to make it easier to be comfortable,” he shares. “I’m happy to not be Justin in my life and speak up against the injustices we are doing as a society.”

So, which character does Brandon truly identify with? Click inside to find out…

JESSICA (Played by Alisha Boe)

“Jessica is the character I relate to the most. The way she dealt with her attack was similar to the way I dealt with things in high school,” Brandon reveals.

“I numbed myself constantly and ignored the truth of certain things. Jessica uses drugs and alcohol and leans toward promiscuous behavior afterward, and she doesn’t address the idea that she was raped. She ignores it even though her character knows it deep in her heart.”

One thing that Brandon does urge young kids to do is talk with parental figures in their lives, because it helps.

“Many kids don’t know how to turn to their parents because their parents don’t offer that outlet,” he says. “They don’t know how to turn to their school because their school doesn’t offer that outlet, so they get stuck and feel like everyone and everything is against them.”

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Photos: Netflix
Posted to: 13 Reasons Why, Alisha Boe, Brandon Flynn