Interview: Dior Goodjohn on Playing Clarisse La Rue in ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’

Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) had to face many challenges in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but one of the most dangerous ones was his first encounter with Clarisse La Rue (Dior Goodjohn) upon arriving at Camp Half-Blood. The bully wasn’t going to let Percy enjoy his experience in this new world, doing everything in her power to take him out before he could control his powers.

Awards Radar had the opportunity to interview Dior Goodjohn, who portrayed Clarisse La Rue in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Goodjohn was excited about the possibility of stepping into the shoes of a complex character, who was clearly working for someone, but also had her personal reasons to consider Percy Jackson an enemy.

When asked about what it was like for her to step into the Camp Half-Blood set for the first time, Goodjohn said: “It was insanely surreal. It was like somebody shook the book and Camp Half-Blood just plopped out in front of me. It made everything so real. It was a magical experience. It’s the only way that I can describe it.”

Dior Goodjohn has a very definitive idea of which Clarisse moment from the Percy Jackson books she’d like to see in the series:”On of my favorite moments (from the books) is my conversation with my dad in the second book, where he’s like: “You will do this quest. And you will do it alone”. And that’s it. That’s the end of the story. If you don’t like it, we’re done. That’s it. (Laughs). I’m so excited to see that made because Adam (Copeland) is such a talented actor, and you just know and can tell that he really cares and that he really does his homework.”

When asked if she knew her co-star, former WWE Superstar Adam “Edge” Copeland, before working together on Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Goodjohn mentioned: “My dad used to wrestle in high school. He and I used to watch MMA and wrestling on television. And I remember a very strange memory of watching Adam in my dad’s apartment in downtown when I was really young. When he got cast, I was like: “Why does your face look so familiar?” And I went to his Instagram and I realized that it was because he was him! (laughs).”

Dior Goodjohn knows the true reason why Clarisse is mean to most people around her, including Percy Jackson: “I think it’s really coming from a place of needing that approval from her father so bad. It comes from a place of her wounded inner child just trying to do everything and anything that she can just to be recognized and acknowledged by her father. She only knows one way to get his attention and that is by being of his likeness. He likes when people glorify him and she does her best to be like him.”

During one of her first appearances in the series, Clarisse tries to shove Percy’s head down a toilet. Fortunately, that situation wasn’t something Goodjohn had to deal with throughout her school life: “It was one of the things I was scared of when going to middle school, because I saw it happen on television all the time. (Laughs). But no, at least for me, that was never a real thing.”

When asked about what she enjoyed about working with her co-stars, Goodjohn had plenty of praise for Walker Scobell, who portrays the titular character: “I think Walker did such an amazing job. He’s so impressive when he does his work. It makes so it easy, to snap into the character, he’s so talented. I’m really grateful for the opportunity of getting to work with him during this lifetime.”

This interview was edited for length and clarity purposes.