User blog:Paul.rea/Teen Wolf News 072617

Teen Wolf News 072617
 * With all the focus on the nostalgia of the past 5 and a half seasons of 'Teen Wolf' in the media this week, Teen Wolf News decided to turn a spotlight on some of the new characters we can look forward to when 'Teen Wolf' returns to MTV on Sunday, July 30 at 8 PM. This is the first in a series of interviews with a few of the more villainous characters we'll see in the final ten episodes of the show. Check out our earlier interview with Andrew Matarazzo, and, in coming days TWN will also introduce you to Sibongile Mlambo.

Meet 'Teen Wolf's' Froy Gutierrez
Teen Wolf is a show about transformation – both literally and figuratively – and actor Froy Gutierrez says performing on the show was also a personally transformative process for him. “Nolan is frail, both mentally and physically, so I ended up losing 15 pounds while I was playing him.”

According to the Texas-born teen, the newest student at Beacon Hills High School may be one of the most complex characters we’ve seen on the show to date. In our interview, Gutierrez described Nolan as “a wildcard,” “tragic,” “sensitive,” and “off in the head.”

Road To Beacon Hills
Like so many, 19-year-old Gutierrez never imagined he’d actually make a career of acting.
 * “It was always something I fantasized about but never really thought would pan out for me. I was going to go school for economics to work as an economist for business management firms. The acting thing grew organically over the years.”

He was performing in the Lone Star State when he was “discovered” a few years back. “A local agent saw me at a school play and signed me in Dallas. Then a national agent saw me in a short film and signed me in LA.” He’s been working steadily ever since, landing multi-episode arcs on Bella and Bulldogs, The Goldbergs, and a recurringng role on the Netflix reboot of One Day at a Time. While he is working a lot in Los Angeles these days, Gutierrez still calls Dallas home.

Welcome To Teen Wolf
Executive producer Jeff Davis tells me he saw Gutierrez the first time when he auditioned for a different show. “He was another actor I brought in for Let The Right One In (Rhenzy Feliz also auditioned) and ended up casting in 'Teen Wolf.'” Gutierrez says his first audition in Beacon Hills was very dramatic. “Nolan is a sensitive guy, so of course I cried my eyes out in the audition room. I guess it worked!” Davis believes hiring him worked out well for the show too. “As you can see from his scene in the trailer (directed by Tyler Posey) Froy brings a lot of intensity to his character.”

Stabby McStabbersen
If you still don’t know which character we’re talking about, take a look at this trailer real quick. Nolan is the dude calmly talking about DNA one minute and then going all “Let’s Crucify Corey With This Ballpoint Pen!” the next. Gutierrez says getting into Nolan’s brain space was a challenge as was letting the character go when the show was over.
 * “Up until 'Teen Wolf,' all of my television and film roles had been in comedies, usually playing a simple pretty-boy archetype. It was such an honor and challenge to play a character as complex as Nolan. Fully constructed in the darkest corners of my head, it's so personally gratifying to transfer his story from my hands to the world's.”

Don’t Call Him A Villain
While we have been hyping this week’s Teen Wolf News as “Interviews with Villains,” Gutierrez does not see Nolan that way.
 * “Nolan is a shy, sensitive sophomore at Beacon Hills High. He plays on the lacrosse team and doesn't have friends. He is one of the more complex characters introduced this season. He suffers from multiple mental illnesses, making him a bit of a wildcard for both the audience and himself.”


 * “The larger, darker (supernatural) forces certainly shake things up for everybody in Beacon Hills, but Nolan's issues were present beforehand and are more local in nature. At the end of the day, after all the stabby behavior, the tragic aspect of Nolan's story is that all of his actions are motivated by a desire not to be lonely.”

Don’t Call Him a ‘White Boy’
Let’s be clear, Teen Wolf’s Nolan is a mixed-race character. While Gutierrez was born in Dallas, he spent the first five years of his life in Guadalajara, Mexico and has deep ancestral roots in the country. In a business increasingly obsessed with every actor's race, he is very proud of his heritage.
 * <p class="MsoNormal">“I am very passionate and vocal about issues facing people of color, so I find it odd that I am often referred to as a white boy. I totally acknowledge the privilege that comes from being "white passing," but it bothers me when my Caxcan-native and Mexican roots are erased. When people refer to mixed people as white, they are feeding into the same systems of oppression that erase the stories of POC. There's a lot of pressure to either tokenize or whitewash myself, and I hope I do not do either of those.”

Life After Teen Wolf
<p class="MsoNormal">Like the rest of us, Gutierrez is looking forward to the Teen Wolf debut on Sunday, July 30, but there’s an episode coming up later that is even more exciting for the actor.
 * <p class="MsoNormal">“Towards the end of the season, Nolan has quite the James Bond moment. I can't say a lot without giving something away, but I definitely fulfilled some childhood dreams that day!”

<p class="MsoNormal">Currently, he is auditioning for new parts regularly. This week he went in for something “huge” that he can’t talk about yet and may not actually get, but Gutierrez takes the ups and downs of his career in stride.
 * <p class="MsoNormal">“The biggest thing I've learned is that nothing is personal. It's not about you. Also known as "we already have a brunette. Thanks for your time." In life, and especially in the entertainment industry, rarely is a decision made based on one or even two factors. Yet, I would rack my brain about why didn't they pick me up for this project, or why the writers went in this direction. There are too many variables to waste time in that game, so I've learned to just present the best work I can every day.”