Entertainment

Katherine Langford: 13 Reasons Why was probably hardest first role to have

The actress said the role ‘taught me the base of what I needed to know about acting’.
The actress said the role ‘taught me the base of what I needed to know about acting’.

13 Reasons Why star Katherine Langford has said her role on the hit Netflix series was “probably the hardest first role to have”.

The actress played Hannah Baker in the controversial series, whose suicide is the catalyst for the rest of the drama.

She said: “13 Reasons was my first job and the first role I ever had, which is an amazing thing to be able to say, because I think it was probably the hardest first role to have in a lot of ways but also the greatest.

“And definitely from that first experience it taught me the base of what I needed to know about acting and it really was my first step into doing this as a career and as a job.

“I think to a degree, a combination of that first experience and then the experiences I’ve had on different sets, and also the conversations that I’ve been able to have, and specifically have with other women and other actresses in this community and in this industry, I think it’s helped me to evolve and to learn a little bit more about doing this as a career and just be aware of different things that I wouldn’t necessarily have been aware of when I was filming 13 Reasons Why.

“I’m very grateful for every experience I have and I think it’s great if you can learn something and I hope you learn something from everything you do and I hope I can continue to keep doing that, and learning and growing, both in a personal sense but also in an acting sense as well.”

Langford will next be seen in the new Netflix series Cursed, a retelling of the Arthurian legend, in which she plays the teenage sorceress Nimue who joins forces with Arthur.

She said: “It’s interesting, because when you think of the Arthurian legend, you think of Arthur and Merlin and the knights of the roundtable, but we very seldom dive into the female characters.

“Particularly with the lady of the lake, who’s such an iconic figure within that legend, we know very little to nothing about her.

“So when I was taking on this role, the first thing I did was to try and research little bits about her, and again, there was very little information so I just tried my best to try and familiarise myself with the Arthurian legend, and at the end of the day, went back to the book.”

Cursed launches on Netflix on July 17.