June 5 marks the 10th anniversary of the hour that first introduced us to Beacon Hills.
Fox wasn’t actually a werewolf movie.
“It’s a basketball movie,” Davis says.
Tyler Posey and Dylan O’Brien in the ‘Teen Wolf’ pilot.MTV
But the difference here is, they’re only looking for half."
That pitch landed Davis the green light to make a pilot presentation, a.k.a.
a little more than half of the full pilot episode.
Crystal Reed and Holland Roden.MTV
JEFF DAVIS (CREATOR): In one day we did Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Derek.
She was actually the first person to audition for Allison.
CRYSTAL REED (ALLISON ARGENT):I deeply connected with the character.
Crystal Reed and Tyler Posey.MTV
DAVIS: I got my way eventually.
It was perfectly clear who the people should be right after that.
They didn’t know that they were our favorites.
Tyler Posey on ‘Teen Wolf’.MTV
DAVIS: We really never had to find any chemistry between Posey and Dylan because it was instantaneous.
It was like watching two long-lost brothers find each other.
POSEY: I showed up in, like, a Hurley sweatshirt and Dylan was wearing a DVS T-shirt.
I immediately was like, “This guy looks really cool.”
O’BRIEN: I think our first conversation was like, “You smoke weed?”
“Yeah, me too.
You play music?”
“Yeah, me too.”
[Laughs] We were buddies immediately.
Then less than a year later that’s exactly what happened.
DAVIS: The last role we cast was Lydia.
Why am I here?"
And I thought, “Okay, well, I’ll put a slant on this.
What if I make her a genius?
Like she’s a full Tracy Flick fromElectiontype, sort of the secret popular girl.”
That’s how I decided to play Lydia, and thank God they went for it.
DAVIS: It was absolutely freezing that day.
I think it was 25 degrees.
We were behind right from the beginning.
We barely got any footage that day and it was terrifying.
REED: Holland was wearing like this cute little skirt.
I remember being like, “I would love a beanie kindly.”
You could just film short bursts of it before people had to run on with blankets.
DAVIS: We also quickly discovered how shockingly difficult it is to shoot sports scenes.
You’re basically shooting a complicated action scene and there are so many bits and pieces.
MULCAHY:We pumped up the action.
You cannot go wrong with lacrosse and werewolves.
DAVIS: We thought we would get so much done in one day and we barely got anything done.
It was definitely a day of heartbreak.
But we survived it and then we started getting good stuff.
…TO THE BITE
Weather tried to take down the pilot in more way than one.
The crucial opening scene in which Scott is bitten by a werewolf?
A flash flood forced parts of it to be filmed in some unusual locations.
MULCAHY: We were filming at night.
Scott’s looking for the dead body, and all of a sudden it’s a flash flood.
We lost some equipment and miles of electrical cable in the mud.
But we finished the scene inside the catering tent.
DAVIS:That pilot was done for so little money, and it was done really fast.
[Laughs] But I don’t think they were missed.
POSEY: That shows how dedicated Jeff was from day one.
He had his hand in every aspect of the show.
He got to play the werewolf for a second.
That’s how we made the show, we were always willing to do anything extra we could.
It felt like hail.
POSEY: It’s the coldest I’ve ever been while filming.
It was my first time having to reach deep down in my emotional well for a character on camera.
And I remember being really, really nervous to do that scene.
DAVIS: you’ve got the option to see Tyler and Crystal shivering to the point of hypothermia.
MULCAHY: The chemistry between Posey and Crystal was electric.
That scene really cemented the magic of the show.
FIRST FULL MOON
From the moment Scott’s bitten, the action is building to his transition.
DAVIS: We knew that we wanted different kinds of werewolves on the show.
I was still a kid.
Our first transformation looked a little bit sexual.
[Laughs] We figured it out on the spot.
MULCAHY: I’d be screaming out “doggy cam!”
and that was a camera that was attached to Tyler Posey with rods.
It looked awkward but gave us fantastic shots.
DAVIS: It was really difficult to do Tyler Posey’s makeup.
DAVIS: There was another day where the hair and makeup trailer burst into flames.
RODEN: Massive black smoke.
It was a legit fire.
It was in flames.
We did smell some kind of burning, but you’d think it’s a curling iron or something.
But we were all laughing about it.
And somehow, despite its many disasters, the shoot produced a pilot that launched a six season-long story.
It’s going to be likeTwilight, these kids all suck at acting."
Perez Hilton called us a bunch of nobodies.
[Laughs]
O’BRIEN: This was not a highly anticipated show.
No one gave a f— about this show.
In between every season, we were saying goodbye.
We almost felt stupid.
It definitely didn’t feel like it was a thing.
DAVIS:At the season 2 Comic-Con, I was really taken aback by how much people loved it.
That’s when we knew.
Much like Scott McCall, the show proved to be resilient.
No flood or freezing rain or fire was going to stop it.
Nor was disaster going to stop the cast from having fun.
REED: The pilot was such a wonderful experience.
It was one of the most profound memories that really shaped who we are.
It just felt like we were all in some kind of acting summer camp.
RODEN: It was a blast.
I have only fond memories.
It was a horrendous shoot, and I was completely unaware.
I was in heaven.
It was the first set I’d ever been on, I was over the moon to be there.
DAVIS:When a pilot goes really well, you’re doomed.
When it’s one disaster after another, you know you’re going to series.
Read more fromI Want My Teen TV, EW’s summerlong celebration of teen shows past and present.
