‘13 Reasons Why’ Star Dylan Minnette Reveals Why He Stopped Acting

Dan Clarendon May 27, 2024, 12:45 pm

13 Reasons Why alum Dylan Minnette has one big reason why he walked away from his acting career.

“[I’ve done] it for so long — like, a really long time — and I was very fortunate to find success in it,” Minnette said in a new Zach Sang Show episode. “But [acting] also started to feel like a bit of a job.”

Minnette got his start as a child star, with a guest spot on Two and a Half Men in 2005 and a recurring role on Prison Break that started that same year. Between 2017 and 2020, he starred in the Netflix hit 13 Reasons Why. But he hasn’t been seen on screen since his 2022 arc on The Dropout, as he’s been focusing on his music career with the alt-rock band Wallows.

Dylan Minnette and Katherine Langford in '13 Reasons Why'

Netflix

“I was in a very fortunate position where it was always fun for me, always really inspiring, but then … as soon as I started to feel like [it was] just a job, I was like, well, I feel like Wallows and music is this passion that we’ve always had as a group to like really take all the way, as far as we can. And I was like, I feel like 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 [100% of my] time and energy into it and like take it very seriously.”

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Acknowledging that he’s “incredibly privileged and lucky” to be in his position, Minnette said that he’s “just following what feels inspiring, and it’s working out for us, and we’re having an amazing time.”

That said, Minnette isn’t ruling out a return to the screen — he even said he considered devoting time to acting in 2023, but then the Screen Actors Guild strike happened.

“I’m starting to feel like I feel like I have something to give artistically and creatively in other fields than just music right now,” he said. “I do feel like I have something to give, and that’s probably acting, but I feel like there’s something I feel like I’m starting to feel inspiration for that again.”