13 Reasons Why's Katherine Langford has opened up about the experience of filming the show's most controversial scene. The decision to show Hannah Baker's suicide in graphic detail during the show's finale has proved divisive – some praise it as an honest depiction that has sparked important conversations, while others have warned that the scene is irresponsible and risks glamorizing suicide.
"I think 'visceral' is a really good word to describe it," Langford told Deadline. "I don't think there was ever a moment where we didn't want to show Hannah's suicide because that wouldn't have been staying true to the vision of the show. I felt like it would have sugarcoated the severity of the issue. It's not pretty, it's not romanticized, it's not a beautiful tragedy — it's agonizing, and it's physically painful to watch."
Which is absolutely true. The scene in which Hannah comes home from her doomed meeting with her guidance counselor Mr. Porter and cuts her wrists in the bathtub, leaving her parents to find her body, is horrifying. Showrunner Brian Yorkey has explained that while he and his writers sought to avoid being gratuitous, glossing over the detail of Hannah's death felt wrong because "we did want it to be painful to watch, because we wanted it to be very clear that there is nothing, in any way, worthwhile about suicide."
Langford said that she and Yorkey discussed the scene at length before filming it. "I obviously had some considerations... because it's such an important moment. It's an act that has been emulated on screen a few times, but for me, has often rung untrue. I consulted with Brian, and I talked to healthcare professionals. I worked with a psychiatrist who specializes in adolescent mental [illness] to try and understand what someone would be going through at that point in time." And while she felt "super supported" during the actual shooting of the scene, "there was still a part of me that was really sad for Hannah. It was this moment where you're playing this girl, but you're also telling her not to do it... She felt so much like a real person that [I had a] real response in doing it."
13 Reasons Why will return for a second season on Netflix, and Langford will reprise her role as Hannah in flashbacks.
