Katherine and her co-star Dylan Minnette talked about how 13 Reasons Why’s popularity and controversy impacted their careers with Variety in new interview and photoshoot. Digital scans have been added to the gallery (thanks to our friend Mouza).

VARIETY – “13 Reasons Why” landed with a bang heard round the internet: The series, about a high school girl who commits suicide, became the most tweeted-about show of 2017 just one month after its premiere, and made overnight stars out of its two leads, Katherine Langford and Dylan Minnette.

It also sparked a national conversation about suicide — and what’s appropriate to be shown on TV.

The actors, who were thrust into the spotlight, faced a crash course in the power and pressure of social media.

“You have an idea of what fame is and what celebrities are like and what acting is like, and you think you can just focus on the work, but in reality, you can’t just necessarily focus on the work because it comes with the privilege and responsibility of having a larger platform,” says Langford. “That’s something that I’ve tried to deal with in a very levelheaded way.”

She points to her Instagram account: It was private at the time the show premiered; now that she’s made it public, the number of followers has jumped to nearly 7 million.

“I like to have moments and periods of life that are expressive and where you can be creative, and I think that’s harder when you have more people that are more aware of you and watching you because if they don’t understand the context and they see a picture of you doing something crazy, then it can get taken the wrong way,” she says. “I don’t think it’s ever something that feels normal, especially as a 21-year-old.”

Hello Kat fans! Yesterday (May 12), Katherine made her first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon! She looked beautiful, as always. You can find a few HQ stills from the interview and an interview clip below!

The stars of ’13 Reasons Why’ grace the cover of Entertainment Weekly (May 19) featuring an all new (adorable!) photoshoot. We’ve updated the gallery with high quality outtakes and scans will be added as soon as they become available. And of course, you can watch the behind the scenes video below. Enjoy!