#tw interviews

Okay, so I’ve just been chatting about this with the meta group. It’s a bit of a Catch 22. Fans ask the actors/actresses for their personal opinions, but then people get upset when they share them. The thing is, actors and actresses are only human, and with a show like Teen Wolf they only know so much. Their personal opinions are really just that - personal. That said, there is an issue, because they will never be “just fans” like the rest of us. Their personal opinions are perceived by the larger fandom as having more weight and authority to them, because they work or have worked intimately with the show and the writers.

Personally, eaddymays opinion on Sterek, and on Stydia to an extent, isn’t one I share. With Stydia, it’s not a pairing I ship or like because it was very much one-sided. However, it makes me uncomfortable that so often people flag it for being a negative pairing because Lydia was rude and mean to Stiles - Lydia really didn’t owe Stiles anything and I wish more people would move away from this criticism of women being mean to men who make unwanted, discouraged advances on them. With Sterek, flagging it for its age difference is always going to be controversial, because this criticism tends to happen most when the characters involved are either same sex or involving an older woman/younger man. Older man/younger woman pairings are notoriously common in fiction, and especially in the fantasy/supernatural genre (Buffy and Angel began when she was 15 and he was 200 yr old vampire turned when he was 26 - a much bigger age gap than Sterek), but they don’t receive anywhere near the same criticism. In defence of Eaddy, she raised this point in a Buzzfeed interview a while back:

Kristen (host): (Reading off the questions from YouTubers) “‘Joecoolio’ says, ‘Hey Kristen, can you please bring up the fact that Stiles is like sixteen years old, which would make Sterek impossible to do until he’s at least eighteen years old, seems like nobody ever brings that up.’”

Eaddy: “Oh please, it’s sci-fi! Okay, does anybody bring up the fact that like, here’s Holland, I mean, Lydia and that creepy moment where Peter opens the door and I was like “creepy uncle, don’t touch me.” You know. So, we sort of go ‘lalalala’ over some of that and it’s all imagination. The whole Sterek thing, and that fantasy, and folks can go with that.”

[x]

I really do think the age gap issue is just her personal opinion and people should accept and respect that as a “your kink is not necessarily my kink” deal. I do find it interesting, because it got me thinking - can we really consider Stiles (or Scott and Lydia) a child at this point? This is a story about Scott, Stiles and Lydia moving into adulthood, growing up, gaining independence and accepting themselves - I think that denying them that goes against the point of their narrative arcs, especially regarding Stiles who is both in the closet and has spent seasons trying to get people (particularly his father) to listen to and believe him. Equally, I would argue Derek’s story has been about growing up and becoming an adult, because his childhood was taken from him at such an early age. As for the ages, we know Lydia, Scott and Stiles are coming up to 18 this season. It’s also been heavily hinted, both by the text and by those involved with the show, that Parrish and Lydia is on the cards. We know Parrish is 24, the same age as Derek. So the argument against Sterek in regards to the age difference really falls flat there, even if Marrish doesn’t happen, because the latter hasn’t received the same level of critique regarding the age gap that the former has, and we have to question why.

It’s not every day you find an actor who loves fanfiction as much as you do, but Eaddy Mays (Victoria Argent, Teen Wolf) certainly fits the bill.

Fandom is an internet phenomenon that has been quickly gaining speed and shows no signs of slowing down. A lot of actors are still trying to digest the power of social media and the destruction of the fourth wall, but a few have already accepted these changes. Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow) immediately comes to mind as one of those pioneers, and so does Eaddy Mays.

We talked to Mays about a variety of topics, including her character from Teen Wolf, but the focus of our discussion was on fanfiction, including why she thinks it’s so popular, her perception of the media’s portrayal, and if she believes it’ll be just as prevalent several years down the line.

Tyler Posey and I have a crazy connection. Back before he got cast in the hit “Teen Wolf” and before I was a writer for MTV, I graded his papers.

Wait, back up. Right after I finished high school, I got a job helping teachers by grading papers for an online school. One of the students I regularly graded was named Tyler Posey, and he would write about going to auditions and his dreams of being an actor. Oh, and he was a very good student, in case you’re wondering.

After this, we both went our separate ways (and both separately found ourselves at MTV). Until now. Tyler has great news with his new pattern at Serengetee, and 15% of each purchase goes straight on over to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This is an org Tyler’s been big into supporting, so I wanted to ask him about how people can join in helping LLS, and how young people can follow Serengetee’s lead to help causes they care about. Oh, and maybe I asked him a question about school. I couldn’t help myself.