(panting)
- And I swear, to this day,
I heard someone say my name.
Clear as a bell.
- We don't have very many great werewolf movies,
we got like, you know,
"American Werewolf in London", "Teen Wolf",
compared to like all the vampire,
great vampire movies we got.
Werewolves have sort of short shrift.
Why do you think that is?
I mean, is there an inherent bias against werewolves
in, in our industry?
- Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Some kind of bias, yeah, I don't know.
I think,
yeah I think, well, 'cause vampires are like,
on a 100% of the time, right?
So they're like, you know,
they can't go out in the day,
they have to go out at night.
Whereas, werewolves
aren't on all the time,
they're always,
it's only, its only at night.
So, I don't know, maybe there's something
that has to do with that, I mean, yeah,
I was just gonna say, I mean,
there's "Teen Wolf",
and my dad was just telling me about
this movie called "Dog Soldier"
that's supposed to be really good.
- [Scott] Oh, right, yeah, fantastic movie.
- [Finn] There's also "The Howling",
which is great.
But, yeah, I don't know, I don't know if
if "Rules for Werewolves" is a full-on, you know,
werewolf movie, or it's not.
Like, it's very kind of on the border,
so I can't, it's hard to explain.
But, yeah I don't know, I think the movie's more about
youth and revolt, instead of
like a werewolf, you know,
a sci-fi or a horror movie about werewolves.
It's more, its more kind of about,
yes, youth standing up and kind of being anarchists.
- [Finn Voiceover] I was hiking deep in the woods.
(grunting)
As far away from those awful cities I've ever been.
- Is this based on a novel, right?
Kirk Lynn, who also wrote the screenplay.
Yeah, maybe describe a bit, who are these werewolves
that are described?
'Cause they aren't, as you say,
they aren't your typical werewolves.
They're more like a bunch of rebellious teenagers, right?
- Yeah, well they're essentially
a, a pack of young adults and teenagers
that band together and kind of fight against regular,
kind of what you would call, like regular government.
They kind of are everything that the government enforces,
they're everything that the government isn't.
- I'm so proud of you.
- (yells)
- They're just a bunch of teenagers who kind of found
their family, right?
Some of them come from bad homes,
some of them don't really have a purpose in life
until they meet,
you know, sometimes they'll join this group,
they'll join the werewolves and they'll figure out
that they have a calling.
And they feel like that they are kind of on the other side.
They feel like they're outsiders, so they all band together.
- And, and your character, you play Bobert, right?
The character from the book.
Can you tell me about him?
Who is Bobert?
- So Bobert is this kid who comes from,
like a pretty bad home,
kind of a broken home.
And he's a...
Shy kid,
and he is also just kind of looking for a place
in the world for him.
And I think a lot of kids relate to that.
- What drew you to the role?
'Cause it seems, from what I've seen from the teaser
or whatever, it looks a lot darker than, say,
"Stranger Things" (laughs) that we've seen you on.
I mean, is this what drew you to it?
Because it's sort of, not the Mike Wheeler character
that we're used to seeing?
- Totally!
Yeah, I'm always interested in playing,
kind of, different kinds of characters,
and in this short specifically,
he's, you know, he tells this story,
and I thought the story,
I mean, the thing that drew towards it was the story
that he tells.
Because what the short is, is that he's telling,
you know, my character's telling the story
throughout this kind of long one take.
And I thought it was really, really interesting and great.
- How challenging was it to do that,
to sort of go to that very dark spot
for, for, for the work?
- Oh, man.
It was, to be honest, it was really fun.
It's kind of, it was fun doing that.
'Cause, I don't get to do that a lot.
And, Jeremy, the director, really, like,
he kind of, it's funny, like
the other stuff we've worked on, I've kind of played
like kind of a darker, a dark version in some music videos.
So it's kind of similar characters.
So, we kind of, him and I kind of know how to,
how to get that out of me.
And, yeah, I don't know, it's great.
I think there's, this sort of like,
you know,
we find it funny because I'm not an inherently dark person,
so we find it funny that I can kind of switch on
something more dark and weird.
- You met Jeremy , the director,
through the work on the music videos
that, that you did with him, yeah?
- Yeah, I met Jeremy when I was,
so I'm 17 now.
I met him when I was 11,
and I met him through an opening casting call,
through this incredible punk band from Toronto called PUP.
And I was gonna kind of play the little version
of their lead singer,
kind of set in a different universe.
But also, kind of a dark character,
the same kind of character.
♪ How many times have you ♪
♪ Lied to my face? ♪
- We've kind of just been collaborating ever since.
He's kind of my first collaborator.
And, when he said that he's, you know,
working on this thing, and working on it with Kirk,
I was like totally swept away by it.
And, yeah, Kirk is also an absolute genius from Texas,
and he, he's like, one of the best writers,
I think, of our time.
So, I'm really happy to be a part of that.
- Yeah, I mean, for people who don't know the actual book,
I mean, it's interesting 'cause it's written entirely
in dialogue.
There's (mumbles)
I mean, can you describe what was,
what impressed you so much with the book,
that made you want to tell this story in a bigger way?
- Well that's,
I think that's the reason why I loved it so much, is because
what drew me in was that it was dialogue,
and, I mean, that's what I love the most.
To me, the "Rules for Werewolves" book gives you
a perfect visual representation of what it's going,
what it looks like.
Because it just tells you what these characters are saying,
what they're thinking 100% of the time.
There's no, like, breaks for,
you know,
the reader being like,
I wonder what this character is thinking,
because they're always talking.
(energetic music)
- Put him in.
- (yells)
- And I think that's how youth are.
Like I think youth are always talking, and they're always,
and kids in general, like kids will always tell you
how they really feel.
And that's, to me, what "Rules for Werewolves", the book,
is incarnate.
And also the screenplay is that,
these kids are just 100% them, to the fullest degrees.
- What sort of movie it's going to be, if, you know,
when you get it made?
- I don't know, you know, it's, it's, it's,
Kind of going to be set in kind of a burnout type
of environment, almost like,
you know, how I, how I read it, which is, you know,
and the director can speak to this, but it's almost like,
I don't know if you ever saw the movie "Suburbia",
but kind of in that weird, burnout town,
and, and these kids kind of are,
are just, they're kind of the kings
of the town, without, you know, them,
they rule over it, whether the people,
whether the other citizens like it or not.
So, yeah, it's gonna be great.
- (laughs) So, I mean, in the book, Kirk Lynn's book,
one of the great things he does is that he keeps everything
quite ambiguous in terms of
whether or not the kids are actual werewolves,
whether what happens to them when they sort of turn
to werewolves, and so forth.
Don't need any spoilers to the film with the screenplay,
but is the film gonna come down on one side or the other?
Or is that sort of ambiguity gonna be something
that's gonna be in the finished film, as well?
- Well, I think ambiguity plays a lot into, into Kirk,
also as a guy, too.
Kirk is kind of an ambiguous guy.
And I've only spent one day with him,
but he's fantastic,
and, yeah, I don't think,
you know, I'm not,
I wouldn't spoil anything,
but, you know,
I don't think anything will be too on-the-nose.
That's just kind of not the film we're making.
- Finally, I mean, this is a new project with you.
You said you got working on other things.
Obviously, you got the new "Ghostbusters" movie
that'll be coming out, but still, what, next year?
The next season of "Stranger Things" comes out,
there's talk of a movie, blah, blah.
I just want to know,
'cause you've got all these new projects coming up,
when it comes to the character
that so many of us know you for, for Mike Wheeler,
are you ready to say goodbye to that character?
Are you coming to the end of that?
Or how do you feel about that prospect,
of, of saying goodbye to him?
- That's a really interesting,
yeah, I think, like,
what's so great about "Stranger Things" is like,
it has the "Harry Potter" effect,
where you can go and see how the characters
and the actors grew over time.
Yeah, well, I think also, well, the character is kind of
a part of me, so definitely when "Stranger Things" ends,
it's not gonna feel like it didn't happen,
or that like Mike isn't a part of me still, I think.
I will be ready to say goodbye,
but also,
it'll be bittersweet.
But, yeah, we've still got a lot of work to do
with "Stranger Things", so we've got some work still ahead.
- Well, thank you so much for taking the time.
It's great to meet you via video.
- I know.
- Yeah, this thing I say to everyone now,
stay safe, wash you hands. (laughs)
- Yeah, (laughs) you too, man.
- But it's been great seeing you,
and hopefully we'll be able to see you
when you actually make the movie.
It sounds great.
I love the book so,
it'll be phenomenal if it gets made
and gets made quickly.
- I hope so, too, man.
Okay, well stay safe.
- Yeah, same.
Take care.
Bye, bye. - Bye.
(energetic music)