"Teen Wolf"'s Dylan O'Brien: From Second Banana to Underdog Obsession

Tyler Posey must be pissed. MTV’s Teen Wolf is his first big show in the lead role, and here co-star Dylan O’Brien goes and steals all his thunder. Well, some of it anyway. 

Of course, we’ve seen it countless times before: the TV sidekick who becomes more beloved than those he/she was supposed to be playing second banana to. Steve Urkel on Family Matters. Jack and Karen on Will & Grace. The Fonz on Happy Days. Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. And if we’re being honest, it seems O’Brien’s character Stiles Stilinski, the awkward best friend of high school werewolf Scott McCall (Posey), seems primed to join that list.

I chalk it up to his underdog status. Undeniably good-looking, the 19-year-old actor also doesn’t quite fit the mold of the “insta-hunk” that the rest of his male co-stars do. This gives him an attainability factor the others lack, and as a result he’s gathered quite a loyal cult of devotees since the show’s debut.

AfterElton.com Editor-in-Chief Michael Jensen recently spoke one-on-one with the young actor, who first gained notice after starring in a series of YouTube videos, to talk about how he’s dealing with all the new found adulation. We also pose other burning questions such as: Why did he decline the Scott role to play the dorky best friend? Will we ever see him morph into a fearsome creature of the night in a future episode? Is Stiles secretly jealous of Scott? 

If you’re “lycan” what you’ve been seeing of O’Brien on the show thus far, you'll want to keep reading for answers to all those questions and more.

(Oh, and sorry for the awful pun. I just couldn’t resist.)

AfterElton.com: You’re kind of stealing the show as the fun best friend.
Dylan O’Brien: [laughs]

AE: You’ve been a real fan favorite on our site.
DO: Wow.

AE: You're getting a lot of the best lines and having some fun with the role.
DO: Yeah, well it’s always been fun, like it’s always been such a fun role. The second I read the pilot script, I automatically fell in love with Stiles. My focus wasn’t supposed to even be on Stiles because I wasn’t supposed to audition for Stiles.

AE: What part did you audition for?
DO: I was supposed to audition for Scott but when I read the script, then I asked to go in for Stiles.

AE: What made you want to do that?
DO: Because exactly what I think the fans see. I saw what the fans see every week. At that first pilot script, he just popped out at me. He was so vibrant, off the page. A lot of it is attributed to Jeff’s [Davis, Teen Wolf's head writer] writing for sure. It’s obviously a collab at this point, but he was the one to initially give me my idea of Stiles with his writing and how he portrayed him.

I think having this character and the story and the genre and this storyline, it’s just kind of like an automatic win just because it’s so good to have that relatable character, that funny guy who’s actually like a real life guy reacting like a real person would. It’s like that dude, it’s crazy and that’s what fans like about him and we have fun with him for sure.

AE: So how would you react if one of your friends came up to you and said, oh by the way I’m a werewolf?
DO: Probably pretty closely like Stiles would. Man, I don’t know, he goes through a lot to maintain his friendship and to keep him safe and what not. I don’t know if I’m as good of person as Stiles. [laughs] I might have just run the first time he tried to kill me, let alone the other four times.

AE: Why do you think Stiles is such a devoted friend?
DO: It just shows how close those kids are. They’ve grown up, Scott and Stiles, their whole lives. I think their family situations say a lot about it too. How Stiles only has one parent, a dad, and Scott’s dad isn’t in the picture, he only has a mom. So it’s like they are each other’s figures that they kind of lean on. I think it’s been that way their whole lives and nothing is going to change that, even one of them turning into a wolf. You know what I mean?

AE: With Jackson all bent on being a werewolf himself, how do you think that is going to play out? There has been a lot of antagonism around Jackson.
DO: Yeah, right. Jackson is for sure the antagonist and we start these last four episodes seeing why and he’s just so power hungry. He’s been after what Scott has ever since he first started noticing how good he got at everything and him stealing all the attention from everyone at school and the coach and Lydia.

I think Jackson has some angst in him and some resentment towards Scott, so I think it can get a little gritty, definitely in the last four episodes. I’m not saying it will. [laughs] It can for sure mess up the dynamic between the three.

AE: Is Stiles jealous of Scott? Both in terms of he’s got this really interesting thing happening to him and he’s also got the girl? Although they are broken up at this point. Is he sort of frustrated?
DO: Yeah, I think Stiles, his head is always in the right place. He’s always kind of thinking what to do and how to handle it next. How to get Scott out of this, how to get him out of this, but I do think the jealousy has crossed his mind at one point. I do think he’s thought about it. When [Scott] made out with Lydia, maybe that’s where we saw Stiles get sort of pissed for the first time.

I think his loyalty ultimately trumps any jealousy that might arise. If it ever crosses his mind, I think it’s only at those moments where things get so bad he’s actually thinking like, "What if this happened to me? How would things be different? Would Scott be helping me the same way I’m helping him? Should I even be doing this? Why am I giving him the time of day anymore?"

Because he’s helping him and helping him, and all [Scott] does is betray him and continue to do things. But it’s like, at the end of the day it’s not his [Scott's] fault.

And that’s just part of the whole thing and I think that’s just really admirable for Stiles to be able to go through all that and remain his friend. I don’t think he’ll ever become jealous to the point of not being his friend and not being there for him, you know what I mean?