In the new sexy, suspenseful MTV drama series Teen Wolf, a re-imagining of the classic ‘80s movie starring Michael J. Fox, Tyler Posey plays Scott McCall, an ordinary teenage boy until one night that changing his life forever. When he goes out in the woods one night and is bitten by a werewolf, Scott becomes stronger, faster and more appealing. Meanwhile, the new girl in town, Allison Argent (played by Crystal Reed), has a family secret of her own that directly threatens her developing romance with Scott.

At the show’s press day, co-stars Tyler Posey and Crystal Reed talked to Collider for this exclusive interview about how they got involved with the series, what they related to most about their characters, what makes these werewolves different, the progression of their characters throughout Season 1, their excitement over going to Comic-Con in San Diego, and the comic book adaptation of the series that will be released. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Question: How did you guys get involved with this show, and what was it about this project that was appealing to you?

CRYSTAL REED: It started off as a normal audition for me. I got the script and I was a little apprehensive because it was Teen Wolf and MTV. At that time, MTV wasn’t doing anything scripted, so I was interested to see how it played out. And then, I read the script and I couldn’t believe it. (Show creator) Jeff [Davis] really had a masterpiece. He’s incredible. I couldn’t turn the page fast enough. And then, I auditioned for it. It was a long process. I met Tyler [Posey] at a chemistry read, and we just had chemistry. I was actually serving sushi when I found out that I got the role. I got the call and I went in the bathroom. You can’t really say anything because there are contracts, so you can’t really tell people, and I didn’t want to jinx it, but I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day. Everybody was like, “Why are you smiling?,” and I was like, “I’m just having a good day!” I got a lot of tips. And then, we filmed the pilot and the series, and I’ve since quit that job.

 

TYLER POSEY: For me, the audition came just like any other audition. I was sent the script, and I was sent the scene that they wanted me to audition with. I was very familiar with the original Teen Wolf, and I was super-stoked that it was on MTV, I was stoked that was reading for the lead ‘cause I’d never done a lead before and I was stoked that it was Teen Wolf, and then I read the script and I was 100 times more stoked. I needed to be a part of this project, any way I could, and the only way I could figure out how to do that was audition really well. I guess I did that because I’m here now, and it’s been the most fun experience I’ve ever had in my life.

Tyler, how did you relate to Scott McCall? Did you just try to identify with the human side of him, instead of the werewolf side?

POSEY: Yeah, I definitely put myself in his shoes, completely. When I’m working as Scott McCall, I’m Scott McCall. I think what he thinks. He’s an innocent kid. And then, when he’s a werewolf, all he wants to do is kill people, so that’s what I’m thinking. I definitely put myself in the shoes of my roles.

How are the werewolves handled, for this particular project?

POSEY: (Show creator) Jeff Davis is really good with keeping up with all of the mythology that’s already in place, and creating his own also. We have a different take on the silver bullets. It’s actually wolfsbane bullets now. The bullets are filled with wolfsbane, which is a flower, and that hurts the werewolves and deteriorates their body from the inside. Werewolves are really fast healers, so their bodies are trying to heal the whole time, but they can’t because that prevents them from doing so. Also, we have the normal senses amplified, like hearing and sight. He’s a good lacrosse player, he can run really fast, he’s a lot stronger, he’s superhuman, and he can tell when people are lying because their heart beats faster.

 

How has it been for the two of you to work together and develop the relationship between your characters? And Crystal, how much is your character’s history an issue?

REED: It never is an issue because she doesn’t know about it until the very end, and then it’s a really big issue because she finds out that everybody has been lying to her, when she’s trusted them completely. And then, she’s got to make a choice between her family – which is something that she really honors and is loyal to – and the love of her life. She loves Scott so much, and she’s got to decide, but it never really comes to a head until the end of the season. That’s when all the drama unfolds.

What was it like the first time you saw the final look for the werewolves?

POSEY: I thought it was really cool. When I first booked the job, Jeff [Davis] had already sent me some images of what he wanted the werewolf to look like and it was completely different from what I thought. I assumed that it was going to look similar to the original Teen Wolf, since we’re doing a remake of a movie, but we were going for, and achieved, a smoother, sexier werewolf that you can kiss. I think we’re done a really good job of that. We have two stages of the werewolf. I’m a beta, which is the first stage, and there’s an alpha, who is the creepy, monster, tall werewolves.

 

REED: That looks really great, too. It was chasing us in a scene and it was so creepy.

 

POSEY: It drooled in my face, in my mouth and in my eyes. It was gross!

Crystal, as the series goes on, what sort of relationship does Allison have with some of the other kids?

REED: Allison becomes really close with Lydia (Holland Roden), and then Lydia betrays her, too. And, she has a strange attraction to Jackson (Colton Haynes) because she just wants to help him. She knows that there’s something underneath his facade. Underneath this jock, cool guy, there’s something really wrong, and she can sense that and tries to help him. Maybe there’s a little bit of an attraction there, too. We explore that love triangle, but there are a lot of love triangles that happen, with Scott and Lydia, and Jackson and Allison, and Lydia and Stiles (Dylan O’Brien).

Do you guys have any favorite episodes or moments that you’re really looking forward to viewers getting to see?

 

POSEY: Yes, I can’t wait to see Episode 10. When I read it, it was my favorite episode. It’s insane! It’s the coolest episode I read. I’m really excited to see the whole ending, from Episode 10 to Episode 12.

 

REED: I’m excited to see Episode 6. That’s an episode where everybody in our cast really gets a chance to show who their characters are. Jeff [Davis] has this montage of Scott and Allison and Lydia, and it explains why they tick. That’s my favorite episode. It’s cut together really brilliantly.

 

POSEY: Episode 6 is a good episode. Episode 6 and Episode 10 are my favorite episodes. I can’t wait!

 

Are you looking forward to going to Comic-Con this year, now that people will get to see some of the show first?

REED: Yeah, I think so. Last year, we went to Comic-Con and we hadn’t filmed anything except the pilot.

 

POSEY: It was our first press thing ever, to promote the show.

 

REED: I will never forget that. It was a great memory, though.

 

POSEY: It was fun, yeah. We took a train to San Diego and we got to bond a little.

 

REED: It will be great to go back and have people be able to ask us legitimate questions about the series. Last year, nobody had any idea, so there were a lot of questions about the original Teen Wolf.

 

POSEY: I can’t wait to go again. It will be fun!

Were you surprised with where your character ended up, by the end of the season?

REED: No because I took a couple of lunches with our creator (Jeff Davis) because I wanted to know her progression, so that I could appropriately approach it, as an actor. And so, he laid out exactly what was going to happen, and I like it. I like the way that he wrote it. She’s real. You get to see her progress from being shy and naive to the downfall of being betrayed and lied to by so many people. At the end, she has this new attitude, but she still remains honest, which I think is important. So, I basically knew what was going to happen before. I wasn’t surprised.

 

POSEY: I didn’t go have an in-depth conversation like Crystal did, but I wasn’t surprised with the way that it turned out. In some of the episodes, my character changes a little, but he was obviously going through some immaturity and growth. I think that my character still has a lot of himself to grow into, so I don’t think he’s too different from where we originally started. Hopefully, there will be more seasons and he’ll get to grow more. I didn’t see too big of a change, from Episode 1 to the last episode, but he has grown a lot. He’s got this sense of responsibility now because with great power comes great responsibility. Having responsibility is going to make you mature, no matter what, but he’s got some growing to do.

Derek is a mentor to Scott, but does the relationship also became a rivalry, as Scott gets stronger?

POSEY: Yeah. Derek sees Scott as this kid that he’s got to deal with because he’s a werewolf and he’s got to teach him the ropes. There are other things that tie them together, so he can’t not have him in his life. And, the way that Derek deals with Scott, Scott doesn’t like it because Derek is kind of a jerk. Scott hates it, so once he starts being able to control his transformation, he does start to get more confident with Derek and doesn’t take any of his crap anymore. That’s going to be a good dynamic to watch change.

How has it been to collaborate with Jeff Davis and Russell Mulcahy on this, and establish the mood and feel of the show?

POSEY: We’re so close with them now. Jeff fills us in on everything, so there’s nothing that we really don’t know is going to happen with the series.

 

REED: I had a lot of questions about my character, and there were a lot of things I didn’t understand about her. Sometimes we’d be filming a scene and we hadn’t even read the full episode because we didn’t have a lot of time, so I would always have to ask Jeff, “Okay, what is going on with her? What’s going to happen next?” And, he was always so open to talking to me about it and hearing my ideas. I would say, “I really think that Allison would do this scene this way because, to me, she is this person.” It’s his character. He created her. But, instead of being closed off about it, he was always really open to collaborating, as was Russell. Russell always let us rehearse before he would set up the cameras because I think that he wanted to know what we felt like doing, naturally. That was great because he wasn’t so set in his ways. The whole production seemed to feel more like a collaborative effort than just a director saying, “Do this, do that,” and the writer being very strict on his words. Some are, but they weren’t at all.

 

POSEY: Except for with me. I had to get my words right every time because my words kept flowing the storyline. Dylan [O’Brien] would have these crazy speeches, but he was allowed to mess them up a little bit because that’s Stiles. But, I had to get my lines right. I would get yelled at by the script supervisor sometimes, but she was very nice.

 

Now that the show is debuting, are you prepared for the devotion of genre fans?

REED: I’m not prepared for them to be watching my personal life. I’m not really into that. But, I think that it’s great that people are that passionate about something. The Twilight fans are all about Twilight. I think that’s really cool.

 

POSEY: I hope I have posters on the walls of girls, and guys.

 

REED: They’re making a comic book of Teen Wolf, which I’m really excited for. Surprisingly, it looks just like us. Those are the things that I’m excited about. It feels good to have that kind of support from your fans.