December Magazine

P: That’s fair. Now you came to Teen
Wolf in later seasons. What’s it like
joining a cast that’s already established?
D: It;’s a bit nerve wracking at first
honestly. Especially after season 3,
which was, I think, a really big landmark
for the show because it kinda
really took it to a serious place, and
there were a lot of really epic performances
in that season. And also,
I think that being the first 20 episode
season, it’s kinda like, alright,
Teen Wolf became a really established
show at that point, and that’s
when Khylin and I and a couple of
other characters came on. So it’s
a bit nerve wracking, especially
being like, I was 15 when I started
on the show and I hadn’t worked in
a couple of years cos I did Man of
Steel, but that hadn’t come out until
quite... not too far before Teen Wolf,
and that’s kinda what helped get
me some traction, but I had 2 years
there where I wasn’t really working.
So going from not working to coming
on an already established TV
show is definitely nerve wracking,
but getting there and kinda getting
into it... like, I think my first day was
a night shoot, which means I got
there at 6pm and then worked until
6am.
P: Geeze.
D: Yeah, so kinda like immediately
I got into... in the shit pretty much,
like that’s what we would call it.
Like, I get there, it’s 6pm, 12 hour
night shoot and stunts and jumping
off things. I got hung off a roof, so I
immediately got into it and it was almost
like I didn’t even have a chance
to realise how crazy it was. I just got
pushed into it, almost, which was, I
think, good. I immediately switched
into work mode, and everyone was
so cool and so kind and I got to work
with O’Brien and Posey for the first
part of when I started, and that was
a big thing too, cos I really learned
a lot, like how to act on set, from
them. They set the tone for me,
which I think was quite necessary.
P: Kind of acting mentors?
D: Yeah, like acting mentors and this
is their set, they kinda set the tone
of how... it’s actually interesting, its
like if they don’t act this way, like
any of the OG characters... I don’t
know. It’s like, they built this bible,
the blueprint of how this set works.
They’ve been there since day so,
so they know. It’s kinda like, you get
on board with how they act, and
that’s kinda like how a regular job
is too. You go in, you kinda feel out
what it’s like. You feel out what the
boundaries are, you feel out how
people talk to each other and you
adapt to it. Luckily I got to adapt to
something that was pretty cool.
P: So aside from Teen Wolf, what
are some of the most memorable
roles you’ve done?
D: I mean, Teen Wolf is definitely
number 1 because it spanned a big
chunk of my teenage years. I went
from 14, 15 years old to now I’m 19.
I’ll be 20 next year and becoming a
young adult.
P: It’s basically growing up on set.
D: Exactly. So growing up and being
on set is that same thing technically,
because I wasn’t going to school,
I graduated early and I was working
on set every day, pretty much,
and that was kinda my life for the
past 3 years. I guess Man of Steel
is quite memorable for me because
Zach Snyder was an amazing director
and Henry Cavill is an amazing
lead and was such a sweet guy.
Obviously I didn’t work with him cos
we played the same character, but
I met him and he was so kind to me.
Diane Lane took myself and the
younger version of me, we all went
out and bowled and I think played
laser tag for a day, just to kinda get
to know each other. And I hung out
with Kevin Costner and he gave me
amazing acting tips, so that was really
a big stepping stone for me to...
just being able to travel somewhere
and work like a real actor. The sets
that they had, and seeing all this
crazy stuff, it was kinda fantastical.
So those are probably the biggest
things. There’s also this movie I did
when I was younger called Bedrooms,
and it’s on IMDB. I don’t even
know if there’s even a way to watch
it, but it’s an independent film, and
me and my sister play twins in it, because
at the time we were a similar
height and had the same coloured
hair and all that stuff. So it was a
movie about four different relationship
scenarios and they all take
place in a bedroom. So my sister
and I had this one where we had a
single mom, we were twins and our
dad had left. Me and my sister had
been fighting a bunch cos our mom
was fighting, our mom was agitated,
so it was kinda trickling down
on us. And then we ended up taking
our room and building a giant wall in
between us to split us in half. So we
had privacy cos we had to share a
room, and pretty much by the end
of it we became close. The characters
in the story, the brother and
sister became very close because
we were building this wall together,
and so in trying to separate each
other they became closer and do-