Dior Goodjohn Reveals Clarisse la Rue’s Hidden Depths in Percy Jackson & the Olympians

It's not easy being a demigod in the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Even less so when you're a daughter of Ares, the Greek God of War who's notoriously difficult to please and who, by his own admission, isn't a fan of his own children. This is the challenge Dior Goodjohn faced playing Clarisse La Rue: Percy Jackson's resident Camp Half-Blood tormenter who immediately takes a dislike to Percy once he arrives at camp with a Minotaur kill under his belt. While it takes a few books before Percy and Clarisse reach some degree of mutual respect, Goodjohn has a pretty good understanding of what Clarisse wants and why she feels it's necessary to project a tough girl persona to reach that goal.

CBR recently caught up with Goodjohn on how she prepared for the Percy Jackson role and which scenes were her favorite to shoot and watch behind the scenes. The Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Ghost Island star also reflected on the time she scared the daylights out of Walker Scobell on-set, which Camp Half-Blood kids Clarisse actually likes, and the scene she really wants to film with her godly dad's actor, Adam Copeland (aka pro wrestling star Edge).

What was your first experience with the Percy Jackson books prior to auditioning for Clarisse, and how did this affect your audition?

Dior Goodjohn: My older cousins were probably 12-13 when the books originally came out. So they were the target demographic and I think I was maybe 5 or 6 and... monkey see, monkey do. Like, I was obsessed with my older cousins and I just wanted to do everything that they did, but I was not a reader when I was younger. I was way more into the theatrics of it all and the singing and dancing and doing all that stuff. But I knew a lot about the actual fandom and the [Percy Jackson] books because they would never, ever shut up about it.

So that was my tie to the books before I started the audition process. And then when I got into the audition process, I remember reading my core scenes. Like, I figured out which pages of the book were Clarisse-related and I read those. Then I dove super, super deep into the fandom. I was all over Twitter, all over Reddit. All over Quora. WikiHow. The Riordan Wiki. Fan pages. Everything!

That's a nostalgic list of databases!

Goodjohn: Dude, yeah! I was all over it. So that's how that whole situation went. That's where I got all of my information and backstory for the auditions.

In The Lightning Thief, Clarisse mainly exists as the bully who likes to pick on Percy when he's at Camp Half-Blood. But anyone who's read the book's sequels knows there's a bit more to her. What would you say is the main driving force behind Clarisse, both as a warrior and a daughter of Ares? And what about Percy's arrival do you think threatens that worldview?

Goodjohn: I think Clarisse's biggest driving force is the desperate need for approval from her dad. It's like... first of all, she's a year-rounder. So that kind of tells you all you need to know about her. Her entire identity is being a demigod and all of it is about glory, and especially with my father [Ares]. He is the type of person that can and will tell you, "You get the glory, and you get it for me and for your cabin. Not really for your cabin. For me." And that's the end of the story.

You might get a little bit of acknowledgment from him, like "Hey, okay you didn't do so bad." But that's it and with Clarisse, the thing is, "I seek and need that validation from him so bad. But I know that he doesn't even like me. But it's some kind of sick, twisted thing in my head that I need to do good for him. I must do good for him. I have to make him see that I am great. Like, why can't he just see that I am so good? Like I'm the best daughter." And so I think that's her driving force and her reasoning behind everything. Behind, like, her hard exterior, there's just this little girl who just wants her dad to tell her that he loves her.

As we saw in the fifth episode, even Ares admits he doesn't like his kids. So if Clarisse had a choice, do you think she would want love from her dad, or respect?

Goodjohn: Respect, one hundred percent. And that type of relationship and growing up with that type of mindset, love over respect... love would be strange and weird and alarming from Ares. But respect... I would have completed my mission, one hundred percent.

I remember Walker Scobell saying during the Happy Sad Confused podcast that you scared him... just a lot during the scene where Percy broke Clarisse's staff. Tell me a bit about the training and stuntwork that went into that fight scene and how long it took to bring the entire Capture the Flag scene to life.

Goodjohn: So we had stunt coordinators and an entire stunt team and... forewarning, I have no concept of time. I could be totally off, but I think if I wanted to put the days choreographing the Capture the Flag scene for me back to back -- at least me learning the choreography -- it took about... I want to say maybe five to seven days. Like a week. And then performing the scene, I would say it took two days. Two and a half days. So that's kind of what went into it, and it was my most favorite scene to film, hands down.

Did they have to change the orange shirts in case anyone tore off a sleeve during one of the fights?

Goodjohn: (Laughs) No I don't think they did. I know that it was intentional for some of the Ares kids to have torn-off sleeves because we're just rowdy. But me, personally? I wanted torn-off sleeves just for my main costume so badly. But that's for the Hephaestus kids.

Fair enough. I believe Percy Jackson and the Olympians' New York premiere was the first time you and Adam Copeland met each other. Obviously, if [Percy Jackson] Season 2 is greenlit, we'll get a few interactions between you and him in The Sea of Monsters adaptation. But do you have an original scene or conversation between Clarisse and Ares in mind that you'd love Rick Riordan and the writer's room to write for you?

Goodjohn: I mean, it's already written. In the second book, it's the scene where I'm telling my dad, "Look, I want to do this, but the Oracle's prophecy is telling me that if I go alone, I'm going to die." And he tells me, "I don't care. You do it, and you get the glory. The only way to get all of the glory is to do it by yourself." He's like, "I don't care." I mean, he caves with the sea of undead U.S. Navy men for me so that's kind of awesome, but that's one scene that I'm so excited to film. Because Adam is such a talented actor, and he gives all of his emotional bank to a scene. He'll just put it all out there on the floor and give you so much to work with and play off of. So that's one thing that I really, really hope I get to do with him.

How many of the Camp Half-Blood scenes were filmed on live sets versus the Volume? Is there any one scene in particular, or a behind-the-scenes moment where you were filming the show and were like, "Wow, I can't believe this is happening?"

Goodjohn: I think... there's so much of the Cloven Council that didn't make it. But the Cloven Council, I think, is one of my favorite sets. It was done on the Volume, and I remember watching Aryan [Simhadri]... I don't know if he knows I was there to this day. But I was watching him shoot that scene where he goes to the Cloven Council, and it was such a beautiful, whimsical set. Like, I could not believe my eyes at what I was seeing. It was so gorgeous.

I know Clarisse's characterization focuses a lot on who she doesn't get along with at Camp Half-Blood. But is there anyone you think she gets along with surprisingly well? Not people we haven't seen yet in the series, but people who are already at the camp?

Goodjohn: I think she and the kids from Hermes Cabin kind of have the most civil, unspoken thing going on. Like, Clarisse and Luke get along pretty well until he accuses me of being the Lightning Thief. And then me and Chris [Rodriguez] get along pretty well too.

Last question: If you could be in any other cabin besides Ares, which would it be?

Goodjohn: Apollo! Apollo Cabin, one hundred percent.

So you think Clarisse has good archery skills too?

Goodjohn: I mean, yeah. Why not? I mean Clarisse can be good at anything when she puts her mind to it.

And if she thinks that she can defeat Percy in the process, she'll definitely win in the end.

Goodjohn: One hundred percent. If there is a way for me to up Percy in any kind of way, I'm taking it.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is now streaming on Disney+.