Netflix show 13 Reasons Why has come under fire in the past for its confronting themes and graphic images. But as a new video shows, for some sexual assault survivors, it's a comfort.
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Justin Prentice plays Bryce Walker in the series; a football jock, bully and rapist. He, along with Katherine Langford (Hannah) are the subject of the graphic scene of Hannah's rape in the last episode of the first season.
Netlix has released an exclusive video of Prentice reading a letter from a fan of the series, who says the show helped her through the recovery of her own sexual assault.
In the video, Prentice addresses the heat he's taken for portraying Bryce. "Bryce is awful," Prentice says in the video. "I think at the end of the day people just want to troll, so I take it all in stride," he said.
Then reading the letter from the unnamed fan, he choked up.
"I'm a childhood sexual abuse rape at 19...and a survivor of suicide attempts," Prentice read out from the letter.
"Watching this has tested my strength as a survivor and it has brought out the side of me that wants to advocate for survivors of traumatic assaults."
Prentice clapped when reading that the victim was coming up on eight months free of self-harm and told them they were "amazing".
But it was at the line "thanks to you guys for saving my life" that Prentice broke down, wiping away tears as he struggled to get the final words out.
"I'm just proud of this person. I'm proud of all the people like this who are stronger than their circumstances. These are heroes...these are people you should look up to and aspire to be lie," he said.
Season two of 13 Reasons Why is set to premiere on Netflix later this year. It was recently announced that stars from the show would be reading out trigger-warning video messages before the first episode.
Newshub.
