'13 Reasons Why' Star Justin Prentice Reveals Own Struggles With Bullying

You probably really hate Bryce from 13 Reasons Why, and Justin Prentice (who plays him) totally gets it.

The Netflix series tackles bullying, online and face to face, in a serious matter.

“I think this series does a great job of showing the many facets of bullying, and how a simple, ‘Hey, back off,’ doesn’t always work,” Justin shared. “Especially in the world of cyber-bullying, once something’s out there, even if you confront the issue, it’s still out there.”

Justin isn’t a stranger to bullying, in fact, he was a victim himself.

“I was on a basketball team as a kid, and there were two twins who were a little older and a little bigger than I was, and there was some bullying going on there. I was a late bloomer, so I was a little smaller in stature,” he explains. “I would talk to my parents about it, which was great … and they were like — this is the South, so they’re like, ‘Just stand up to ‘em! Tell ‘em you’re going to knock their teeth in, then you won’t have a problem anymore.’”

“I did that,” he admits, “And it worked, but that doesn’t always work in real life.”

Justin‘s proud of the series he worked on.

“It starts the dialogue and the conversation, so people know that all of their actions have consequences, and people need to think through what they’re actually doing and if it’s going to affect someone negatively.”

13 Reasons Why is streaming now on Netflix.