'Teen Wolf': Cast speaks candidly

'Teen Wolf' cast members Tyler Posey, Crystal Reed, Tyler Hoechlin, Colton Haynes and Holland Roden speak about the new MTV series.

By Tiffany Vogt, The TV Addict / May 31, 2011

'Teen Wolf' cast members Colton Haynes, Crystal Reed, Tyler Posey, Holland Roden, and Tyler Hoechlin attend the Teen Wolf premiere party on May 25, 2011.

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In MTV’s new dark thriller TEEN WOLF, a teen boy’s life is irrevocably changed after being bitten by a werewolf. While he struggles to adjust to his new physical changes, the world around him shifts as well. He discovers he is not alone and meets a mentor of sorts who helps guide him through the transformations and navigating an increasingly tricky social scene at school. Then, as if that were not enough, he finds out that he is not necessarily the predator in this story; that he may be the prey as well when it is revealed that a team of hunters have moved into town and are tightening their net.

Thus, the cursed and conflicted Scott McCall (Tyler Posey), his mysterious mentor Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin) and the new girl in town Allison Argent (Crystal Reed) are all caught up in the thorny tale of star-crossed romance amidst a modern day horror story.

Taking a few minutes to talk with the press about what makes TEEN WOLF a must-see show of this summer, Tyler Posey, Crystal Reed and Tyler Hoechlin candidly shared their insights and offered a few sneak teases.

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What do you like best about your character?

Tyler P.: It’s not just one character. It’s two. I get to play this really innocent kid who’s just tired of being an outcast and wants to be popular. I also get to play an insane, psychopathic killer. So they’re completely contrasting characters and it’s just really fun bringing both of them to life and just running with it. Love it!
Crystal: Allison is really trusting, I think innately. Scott ends up betraying her and her family has been lying to her for her entire life; so she goes through a major change from beginning to end but she still maintains part of who she is. That’s one of the reasons I like her so much and something I can personally relate to as well.
Tyler H.: The thing I like about Derek — I want to make this very clear: he’s not at like Jack Sparrow at all. But he’s very much in the same way — back-and-forth in that you don’t know which side he’s on at the moment. And that’s something that’s very fun to play. And as [Tyler P.] said, it’s fun playing multiple characters and Derek has a lot of good and a lot of evil all mixed up in one, and you kind of don’t know which to root for and which to hate.

What exactly is Derek going to be teaching Scott?
Tyler H.: [Derek] is going to teach him how not to kill his family and friends. I think that’s probably the most important thing. There’s an episode where [Scott] says he has homework, and I’m like, ‘What’s more important: homework or not killing your friends?’ That might be priority number one. But Derek has his own reasons why [Scott's] got to master these new powers. Very good reasons. Very dark.

Do they delve further into Derek’s backstory this season?
Tyler H.: Yeah, as the season goes on. There’s very much a mystery. That kind of maintains throughout the first season. But you do get to know a little bit more of why he is the way he is.

Did Derek bite Scott for a specific reason?
Tyler H.: There’s a lot of twists and turns in it, so I won’t answer any of those questions directly. But there definitely is. Derek has his very own specific motives and they are made clear throughout the first season. So you will find out what they are.

Are Scott and Allison star-crossed because one is the werewolf and one is the hunter?
Crystal: Allison doesn’t know that her parents are hunters, nor that [Scott’s] a werewolf. So she just thinks that people are acting weird and people are lying to her. [Tyler] is the one that really has to internalize it all.
Tyler P.: Yeah, and it sucks ’cause relationships are based on trust and honesty and ours is neither of those. It can’t be. It’s not like I’m lying to her. I keep things from her for her own protection. But she doesn’t know that. So she thinks I’m just being weird and cheating on her. I’m not at all. I’m very loyal.

Do the hunters know who are werewolves?
Crystal: I don’t think the hunters know. They just know that there’s werewolves here. They don’t know who is a werewolf; but at some point they do.
Tyler H.: They have an idea that Derek is there. My family has a history with [Allison’s] family. So they are very much aware that I could be stirring up some trouble.
Tyler P.: Downhill, uphill. It’s a crazy roller-coaster. It’s just insane. I can’t wait to see it.
Tyler H.: Being unpredictable is one of the things we take pride in on the show — that as soon as you feel like someone’s figured it out, it takes a turn.

Did you have any challenges with the werewolf transformations?
Tyler P.: Probably just being in the makeup chair.
Tyler H: It’s kind of the easiest thing to do when you have the makeup on. That’s the worst part, the makeup process and the contacts suck. We’re supposed to have a heightened sense of sight and it actually blinds us. But other than that it’s this crazy freeing experience. You don’t look in the mirror and see yourself. There’s not that sense of judging yourself because it feels like it’s not you really doing it. It’s really freeing.

What other kind of challenges did you face working on the show?
Tyler P.: The car that we got — I think we got it for free — the battery died. They couldn’t buy a battery — I don’t know why — but every time the car stalled, it would take 30 minutes to boot it back up. So eventually they gave up and started pushing the car.
Crystal: I’m a pretty good driver in real life, but for some reason I was a pretty horrible driver on the show!

How freezing cold was it since you did a lot of filming without shirts?
Tyler H. to Tyler P: You got it the worst.
Tyler P.: The cold was so bad. The fact that they would spray me with water in every shot. I would be sprayed down and then we’d do a take and they’d spray me down again. It was really, really cold!
Tyler H.: The one thing me and Tyler wanted to do the day we wrapped was to take [Director] Russell [Mulcahy] into the woods and tie him to a tree and spray him all over, just so he knew how it felt.

What was your favorite supernatural movie as a teen?
Crystal: I like Buffy. I watched Buffy, the Vampire Slayer growing up.
Tyler P.: I really liked Queen of the Damned. I was super into that movie.
Tyler H.: Pirates of the Caribbean, the Curse of the Black Pearl. My favorite movie. Johnny Depp is my favorite actor and Jack Sparrow is my favorite character. The shape-shifting skeletons as pirates — that’s my favorite.

What does TEEN WOLF have in common with Michael J. Fox’s “Teen Wolf” film?
Tyler P.: The only thing we have in common is the name and perhaps a couple names of the characters.

Then on the opposite side of the spectrum, ensnared on the fringes of Scott’s new supernatural life, are the super-driven duo Lydia Martin (Holland Roden) and her boyfriend Jackson Whittmore (Colton Haynes). Both Holland and Colton talked about what they loved about their characters and were surprised by on the show.

What makes TEEN WOLF different than the other genre shows?
Colton: People like to say that other shows are like the “Romeo & Juliet” story. Ours is in a way, very like that. It’s not the love-triangle that a lot of the “Twilight” and things like that have. . . You’re left wondering what’s going to happen next? It’s intriguing and very sexy and edgy.
Holland: I think they play more with cinematic effects more than you usually see on TV, especially for a teen drama. We’re also solely based on werewolves.
Colton: So you’ll start to see different types, maybe possible mutations of the werewolves.
Holland: And there’s a hierarchy between werewolves that no other show has tapped on yet.
Colton: Our show is not exactly the cutesy werewolves that you’d see or that you’d want to kiss. Jeff, the writer, likes to say that our werewolves are ones that you want to lick. So vampires are on the outs. It’s all about the werewolves.