Former ‘Teen Wolf’ Stars on How Young Actors Can Survive a Media Storm: ‘Be Comfortable With Saying No’

The former stars of supernatural teen drama “Teen Wolf,” who were all relatively young when it was at the height of its success, have some advice for young actors who find themselves in a media storm and subject to intense public scrutiny as their shows take off.

Speaking at the 64th Monte-Carlo Television Festival Saturday, alongside three other former “Teen Wolf” actors, Holland Roden, who played Lydia in the show, said her advice would be: “Calm down, enjoy it. It’s all good. It’s all going to be good in the future. No matter what happens.

“You put so much pressure on yourself, like: ‘Would ‘Teen Wolf’ lead to another job? How am I going to make a living?’ All these really big, esoteric things. It’s going to all be fine. It doesn’t matter what you’ll do, it’s going to be fine. And just to enjoy the ride more. I wish I enjoyed it more in the moment.”

Tyler Posey, who played Scott in “Teen Wolf,” said: “Yeah, I think it’s the best advice: to be really present through it all, because there is a lot of stress and pressure and a lot of attention on you for the first time. And it’s not human nature to have that many eyes on you, and so it’s a very strange concept to grasp. I don’t regret the way that I handled any of it. I feel like I am the way that I am now because of it all, in the way that I went through it, and I feel like I was pretty present for the most part. I would say, ‘Just do exactly what you’re gonna do, because things will turn out ok.’”

Tyler Hoechlin, who played Derek in the show and also starred in “Superman & Lois,” said: “Yeah, I would echo that. Just be true to yourself. It’s an easy way, because you may look back on choices you made or things that you didn’t say, or I wish I hadn’t done that, but at least it was truthful to you in the moment, and you don’t feel like you betrayed something you stood for, anything like that. And I would say for any of the younger kids going through it now –with X, Instagram, Tiktok and everything else now – I think there’s a lot of pressure. It almost feels like there’s a pressure to turn every day of your life into a media day. And I don’t think that’s necessarily healthy, especially for young kids. So, I would say, ‘Be comfortable with saying no. It’s ok to say no. It’s ok to have boundaries.’”

Charlie Carver, who played Ethan on the hit MTV show, said: “I think the other thing too is that when you’re exposed to that kind of scrutiny and you become somewhat self-involved – you have to to manage the inner chaos of what it’s like to be exposed – but there’s an opportunity in that where all you can really do is ground yourself in the work and why you love it. Because I just remember having to really reevaluate for myself: ‘Why am I doing what I’m doing? It’s because I love it.’ You find that in your cast, you can find it in the material. So, it’s a bit of an initiation into some kind of authenticity about why we all signed up to do this in the first place.”

Hoechlin added: “You reminded me of something that for me was really important. I played baseball growing up. My coach, who was one of the most difficult people to play for when you were getting to know his style of coaching, became one of my greatest mentors, and one of the people I’m still closest to. What I would say is something he always said to us, which was: ‘If it’s not constructive, then it should be in one ear and out the other.’ That’s very difficult to practice. You always linger on the negative comment more than you focus on a positive one. If it’s not constructive, if it is not criticism that’s there to help you improve or get better, then it’s in one ear, out the other. If it’s constructive, take it, harness it, use it. I think that’s a good place to start. Tune out the negative stuff as best you can.”