People Are Sending Death Threats To The Actor Who Plays Monty On '13 Reasons Why'
25 May 2018, 11:44
Some people are having trouble understanding the difference between a character and an actor.
13 Reasons Why actor Timothy Granaderos is receiving death threats on his Instagram for his portrayal of the character Monty in season two.
In the latest season, Monty is responsible for a lot of horrible things that happen to the other characters. He orchestrates an intimidation campaign against those testifying in the court case into Hannah's death, including breaking in and damaging the pharmacy owned by Olivia Baker, sending a gun and a bullet to Alex, and attempting to hit Clay off his bike while driving in a car. The most shocking moment comes in the final episode when Monty violently beats Tyler in the men's toilet at school and then rapes him with the end of a mop.
Although we later learn that Monty comes from a violent and unstable home, there's no doubt that Monty is a truly cruel and evil character who's gone way past the point of redemption. But Monty is just a character and, unfortunately for Granaderos, some people are having trouble understanding the difference between the character and the actor.
It doesn't take long looking through the comments on Granaderos' Instagram account to find messages blaming him for what happens to Tyler. "It's hard to see you as a good person after what you did to tyler", writes one user. Another comments that "I will fuckin kill you" and "you have to die, even if you were acting motherfucker, poor tyler". It goes on and on.
Some of Granaderos' cast mates have come to his defence. Justin Prentice, who must have received his fair share of hate for his role as Bryce - the other villain on the show, posted a photo of himself with Granaderos and Ross Butler and captioned it with the hashtag "#timisnotmonty". Devin Druid, who plays Tyler, also showed Granaderos some love on Twitter too.
We love you, Timmy boy. One of the kindest, most empathetic and talented artist I've ever met. https://t.co/PcA4DNHHjn
— DEVINDRUID (@DevinDruid) May 25, 2018
❤️
So let's state the obvious just in case there's any confusion: sending hate messages and death threats is never okay. Not even as a joke. Actors like Granaderos and Prentice have a really difficult task in bringing these monstrous characters to life. Without their brilliantly convincing performances the show just wouldn't have the same impact in bringing to life the important issues of bullying and sexual assault.
The tl;dr is this: they are actors. They are not the characters on the show. Leave them alone.
