Actress goes behind the scenes for Netflix series
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — In 2008, Mandy Teefey, the mother of pop star and actress Selena Gomez, was browsing at a Barnes & Noble when she spotted ‘‘Thirteen Reasons Why’’ by Jay Asher.
The best-selling youngadult novel tells the story of Hannah Baker, a high-school girl who kills herself, leaving behind cassette tapes detailing the 13 people she blames for driving her to suicide.
It’s no surprise that, standing in the bookstore, Teefey was compelled to read it: Woven into Hannah’s dark account of isolation, adolescent betrayal and sexual stigmatizing are messages of acceptance and compassion, yet it unfolds like an emotional thriller. Not much later, Teefey and Gomez were eating sushi with Asher, negotiating for the rights.
When the option expired for ‘‘Thirteen Reasons’’ — the original idea was a movie vehicle for Gomez — the production company Anonymous Content introduced them to the Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Brian Yorkey (‘‘Next to Normal’’), who wrote the adaptation.
‘‘We were all so nervous,’’ said Gomez of pitching the project as a 13-part television series. ‘‘I think Netflix bought it because they could see how passionate we were about it.’’ The series, which stars the newcomer Katherine Langford, is available today on the streaming service.
Right before production, Gomez, an executive producer on the series alongside her mother, took a 90-day career sabbatical for her health. ‘‘It felt like’’ the show ‘‘was mirroring what was going on in my life,’’ said Gomez, who has lupus and struggles with anxiety and depression.
‘‘But my mom would send me really horrible-quality versions of the dailies on my phone saying, ‘This is such a beautiful scene.’’’
Gomez, her mother and Yorkey recently shared insights into the new series.
Selena, you were 15 and a major teen star when you optioned the rights to ‘‘Thirteen Reasons.’’ How did you and your mother convey your
interest to Jay Asher?
I think he understood that I knew what it meant to be bullied. I went to the biggest high school in the world, which is the Disney Channel. And my mom had a lot of history dealing with bullying. I heard her stories growing up. She’s very open about it.
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Selena, has social media changed since you’ve been in the public eye?
When I was on “Wizards of Waverly Place,” we didn’t have social media really. Twitter had just begun. Every Friday, I’d get to do a live taping in front of all these little kids and make their life. That’s when I was the happiest. Then, as I got older, I watched it go from zero to a hundred. So I’m actually glad it took us this long to create this project because it’s so relevant now.
Do you read the comments on your 114 million-strong Instagram feed?
You can’t avoid it sometimes. I delete the app from my phone at least once a week. You fixate on the negative ones. They’re not
like, ‘You’re ugly.’ It’s like they want to cut to your soul. Imagine all the insecurities that you already feel about yourself and having someone write a paragraph pointing out every little thing — even if it’s just physical.
Is the book bettersuited to be episodic than told in one film?
One of the reasons it didn’t work as a feature was that there wasn’t enough time to tell the stories of the other characters and why they were making the decisions they were making. Brian was able to make them threedimensional so that, at some point, you felt badly for them, too. That’s why the feature script didn’t work. Hannah just seemed mean.
What conversations did you have about the tone?
We talked a lot about “True Detective,” “Mad Men,” about “Breaking Bad.” Not that “Thirteen Reasons” is anything like those shows. But they’re very adult shows that tons of kids are watching. "Thirteen Reasons" is not just for kids — it’s for everybody, we hope. First and foremost, it was about taking kids seriously.