Dylan O'Brien and Holland Roden in TEEN WOLF - Season 1 - "The Tell" | ©2011 MTV

You think it’s tough being a teenaged werewolf? Try being the non-super-powered best friend of a teenaged werewolf – all of the secrecy, more of the danger, and no perks like heightened reflexes. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.

On MTV’s TEEN WOLF, Monday nights at 10, the gig is filled by Dylan O’Brien, who plays Stan “Stiles” Stilinsky, who researches all the mythology that comes with the hairy curse afflicting his pal Scott McCall (Tyler Posey).New York native O’Brien, who will be twenty later this month, talks to us about portraying the compadre of a high school lycanthrope.

ASSIGNMENT X: Stiles is kind of a smartass. Had you played this type of character before?

DYLAN O’BRIEN: This was the first role that I got.

AX: What did you do before you were an actor?

O’BRIEN: I went to high school and I made YouTube videos, and that eventually got me into acting unintentionally. [They were] just sketch comedy videos that I would write and make and edit them and put the money in and eventually got enough of a following that somebody noticed me and I started auditioning and I got TEEN WOLF, so there you have it.

AX: Coming from sketch comedy, who are some of your comedy heroes?

O’BRIEN: Jim Carrey’s the main guy. My heroes are Tom Hanks and Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. Those are guys who can do all of it. I’m not a total comedian guy. That’s why Jim Carrey is [so good] – he can make you cry one second and make you pee your pants laughing the next second.

AX: When you auditioned for Stiles, what did they tell you that they were looking for?

O’BRIEN: Nothing, they didn’t tell me anything. I just read the script on my own and had an idea of the character and went in and just tried to give them the best [performed version] of my idea

AX: Have you thought about what you would do if you were really in the situation of having your best friend become a werewolf? Is Stiles reacting the way you would react?

O’BRIEN: I don’t know. I was actually saying this before – I think Stiles is almost a better person than I am, because it would be really tough to stick around after a wolf tried to kill you, not just once but multiple times. So I think he’s kind of the golden boy in that regard.

AX: Do you think maybe Stiles is one of those people who sticks around in an abusive relationship when they shouldn’t?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, probably [laughs]. Actually, I don’t know. He probably just understands. He knows that when Scott lashes out, it’s not him, it’s something inside. He’s possessed, basically. It’s something that’s taking over his body, so he just has to – no matter what [Scott] does to [Stiles], he’s got to not take it personally.

Dylan O'Brien at the 37th Annual Saturn Awards | ©2011 Sue Schneider

AX: Do you ever get to make suggestions about your dialogue, to punch it up a little?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, absolutely. [Creator/show runner] Jeff [Davis] gives me a lot of collaboration, actually. It’s really cool. He’s all about that. He totally lets us give insight, he’ll listen to an improv idea I have.

AX: You get thrown around and have to run around – what’s been the most physically challenging thing you’ve had to do so far on TEEN WOLF?

O’BRIEN: I’d say the stunts are the easiest part. It’s when Stiles just has to be Stiles physically is probably the most challenging, just because I have to come up with weird ways of how he would move, because he moves like [demonstrates Stiles’ walk].

AX: Were you a horror genre fan before you got involved with TEEN WOLF?

O’BRIEN: No, I wasn’t at all. It’s weird. I was a fan of good movies and good filmmaking, so I had seen genre films – I was a huge AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON fan and [a fan of] THE SHINING, but I wasn’t a buff.

AX: Are you involved in any other projects right now?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I just shot a romantic comedy that I was the lead in for the first time, called THE FIRST TIME, with Brit Robertson, who’s going to be in THE SECRET CIRCLE. Jon Kasdan wrote and directed, cute little movie.

AX: Did you do Comic-Con this year?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, it was crazy. Really crazy. That was the first time we saw the reception that we were getting, the show and everything, the great response from the audience, the fans. Girls were screaming and crying and it was nuts.

AX: Was that reaction something that made you think, “I like this” or did you think, “This is a little unnerving”?

O’BRIEN: Well, it’s definitely unnerving. I used to be freaked out by it, but I’ve started becoming more comfortable with it, just because I’ve started having a different mentality about it, just like, “You’re just making these kids really happy” [laughs] and it’s really cool. You know, if they’re twelve to fourteen, they’re going to do things that obviously us twenty- and nineteen-year-olds aren’t equipped to at this point, they seem a little weird, but you’ve got to embrace that, and you’ve got to love how much they love it.

Dylan O'Brien in TEEN WOLF - Season 1 - "Lunatic" | ©2011 MTV

AX: Are you a fan of TEEN WOLF?

O’BRIEN: I have a really tough time watching myself, so it’s tough to watch it. We do have TEEN WOLF viewing parties every week, though, so I do see episodes, and I like seeing how they come out. I’m a fan of the show, for sure.

AX: Anything else you’d like to say?

O’BRIEN: Just keep watching so I can keep my career going.

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Click on link: for AX’s review of the series 1 premiere of TEEN WOLF – “Wolf Moon”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Second Chance At First Line”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Pack Mentality”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Magic Bullet”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “The Tell”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Heart Monitor”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Night School”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Lunatic”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Wolf’s Bane”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Co-Captain”

Click on link: AX’s Exclusive interview with TEEN WOLF executive producer Jeff Davis – Part 2

Click on link: AX’s Exclusive interview with TEEN WOLF executive producer Jeff Davis – Part 1

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Article: Exclusive Interview with TEEN WOLF star Dylan O’Brien

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