"13 Reasons Why" Actor Anne Winters on Chloe and Bryce's Relationship and How Season 3 Could Be Different
Trigger Warning: This post contains language about sexual assault that some readers may find disturbing.
It would be easy to watch Chloe's storyline in the second season of 13 Reasons Why like a horror movie, yelling at the pretty and popular head cheerleader don't go in the house, the bad guy's waiting in there and he's going to get you! But the Netflix show is not some sort of fantastical thriller — it attempts, in its own way, to tackle topics such as sexual assault, issues that too many young people face every day. The house is Chloe's relationship. The bad guy is her boyfriend, Bryce, whom viewers know as a rapist.
"She didn't know what was right or what was wrong," Anne Winters, who plays Chloe, tells Teen Vogue about her character. It's a crucial perspective to acknowledge or unpack, not least of all because it wasn't too long ago that victim-blaming and gas-lighting women for speaking up about their assaults was a frustratingly typical response. As much as the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have challenged and helped correct such reactions, the heartbreaking fact remains that people like Chloe still exist, and that they are slower to believe sexual assault accusations for any myriad of reasons.
"She just really didn't know who to believe," Anne adds. "She's the girl in high school that has the cool boyfriend and this and that; she's never going to let on to any of her friends that she's in any sort of trouble with him, because that's her reputation. From the very beginning, you could tell that she was a confident girl who thought that she could handle more than she took on."
Throughout 13 Reasons Why's second season, we watch as Chloe navigates a tentative friendship with Jessica, whom she defends from the rumors and slut-shaming done by other students at Liberty High School. Yet she stays with Bryce — even after someone spray-paints "rapist" on his locker, even after someone burns the word into the baseball field, even after Clay shows her a Polaroid of Bryce assaulting her unconscious body and asks her to testify against him. Yet even with that physical proof that Bryce has violated her, she changes her mind on the witness stand and gives a testimony that tarnishes Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford), not her boyfriend.
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While we never see the clubhouse assault that someone documented via Polaroid, the show does portray other moments where Chloe is clearly uncomfortable about having sex with Bryce. "Chloe's in a relationship, and she has had sex with Bryce before, but that doesn't mean that you can't still be in a rape situation. Consent is all the time," she explains, nodding to the fact that consent is situational, and should be communicated every time people do anything together.
"It was a very uncomfortable scene, the one where he was basically like, 'Are you fine with this?' as he's literally on top of me, and Chloe says, 'Yeah, I think so,'" Anne admits. "In her mind she's like, 'Well, I can't really ... It's weird if I say no, because he's my boyfriend and I do love him, and I am attracted to him.'"
But Bryce coercing Chloe isn't the same as her giving consent, and it's entirely within your right to change your mind about getting intimate with anyone for any reason, at any time. It is entirely different, too, from acting out a scene in which nothing actually happens but your job is to convey a volley of emotions that too many people know all too well. Part of that process, Anne explains, involves a sensitivity meeting between the actors, the showrunner, and the episode's director, as well as a closed set when filming actually happens.
"No one's in there except for you and the director, and it is as comfortable as it can be," Anne says. "You could just tell that when it comes to a sensitive scene like that, they can really take their time with it, and they really give you a lot of time to figure everything out and to feel comfortable." She also credits directors Karen Moncreiff and Michael Morris, as well as Justin Prentice, who plays Bryce, with helping her through the process. "Justin really did make sure that I was comfortable, and would always ask me if there was anything that was getting too crazy. From the very start, [Bryce and Chloe] have a rough sexual relationship, so we both were thrown into it together," she adds.
Working with Justin, who studied rape culture extensively before taking on the contentious role, also required Anne to separate what she knew about the 13 Reasons Why storyline and what Chloe knew about her boyfriend, and about Liberty High. Chloe, after all, doesn't get the play-by-play narration provided by Hannah, nor is she able to witness scenes from multiple character viewpoints the way the audience is. But even though she believes Bryce, she isn't entirely unsympathetic to Jessica, a fellow cheerleader whom Bryce raped the year before. As it turns out, that is driven from a kind of pity that no survivor is asking for, and a denial on Chloe's part, possibly of self-preservation.
"I think that there's a sense of her that is like, 'Jessica just didn't understand Bryce like I do,'" Anne says. "People at school are saying that Jessica made up a rumor that Bryce raped her so that it didn't seem like she cheated on Justin. In Chloe's mind, it's like, 'Well, that makes sense, and it's OK. We can still be friends.' I genuinely think Chloe saw herself above Jessica, in her world with Bryce."
The storyline also speaks to the ways women treat each other, and how everyone is accountable to ending rape culture. Chloe isn't alone in her way of thinking, either; Anne says she receives a number of messages from viewers who tell her that they related to the character. "They're glad the show had a character like Chloe that didn't really know what to do and had all these things going on and didn't know what to believe," she explains. She also says people in similar situations have gotten in touch: "When girls say that I helped them maybe see that the guy that they were dating wasn't the best guy, that's the best thing ever."
"When you're reading the scripts, you're like, 'Why is she still with him? There has to be a point where she leaves,' but realistically that doesn't always happen," Anne notes. Complicating matters is that Chloe learns she's pregnant, presumably by Bryce, in the last episode of season 2. To that end, she hopes that the series could explore an abortion storyline in its recently-announced third season. ("I think that we really should cover abortion and see whether Chloe has one or not," she adds, adding that she hopes a portrayal like that could help diminish the stigma against the decision.)
Anne does hope, however, that the next season of the series is "more uplifting" than its predecessors. (A PSA currently runs ahead of season 2's first episode, warning viewers that the show can be triggering and may not be right for them to watch.) "We're all standing together," she says of the movement borne from people rejecting the stigma attached to what was done to them. "We're all telling people, 'You're not alone,' because people aren't alone. People hide behind computers and TV screens, and they're like, 'Oh. No one else understands. And I can't even watch this with other people because I've actually gone through this and no one else has.'" But as the voices who have rallied to say #MeToo have pointed out, that's far from the case.
"I'm sure that if you open up to someone about it, they would be like, 'You know what? Actually, now that we're talking about it, that happened to me,'" Anne explains. But she also knows that not everyone is ready to talk just yet, and that's understandable, too: "If you want to tell someone, tell someone. If you need time, take time, but just know that you're one of so many people."
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can seek help by calling the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673). For more resources on sexual assault, visit RAINN, End Rape on Campus, Know Your IX, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
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