Hypable attended The Bite Convention earlier this month and will be bringing you a recap of the Teen Wolf convention for each of the three days. Here’s day one!
About BiteCon
BiteCon was a fan-run convention exclusively for Teen Wolf that started as a distant dream, but quickly became a reality. Inviting cast and crew members from the show, the staff behind BiteCon pulled together the convention in record time and created a memorable event not only for the fans, but for many of the people behind Teen Wolf as well.
Hypable and Not Another Teen Wolf Podcast were there each of the three days in order to moderate the panels, and even host a few of our own. We’ll be giving detailed reports on each of the three days the convention was operating so you won’t miss any of the important information that came out of the con. And when we’re all done, we’ll have some giveaways as well!
Day One – Full of emotions
The cast and crew of Teen Wolf have been to conventions before, but many of those conventions do not focus strictly on that single show. BiteCon was the first exclusive Teen Wolf convention to be planned for the United States, and the first one to be carried out by fans of the show.
On day one, several stars showed up to talk about their characters, whether living or dead. Highlights included Orny Adams’ hilarious solo panel and Eaddy Mays’ emotional panel about fandom and fanfiction.
The Good, the Bad, and the Mildly Terrifying
The first panel included Seth Gilliam (Dr. Deaton), Brian Patrick Wade (Ennis), and Gideon Emery (Deucalion). Though both Wade and Gilliam talked about what it’s like to be on set with a bunch of younger people, it seemed that the focus was on figuring out some back stories and even wondering what sort of relationship Deaton has with Scott and his pack.
One of the most interesting questions of the night was to Gilliam when he was asked if he had any insights into what his character was like when he was younger. “Yeah, anything I would have to say now is all my own imagination because Jeff [Davis, series creator] hasn’t given me anything specific about Deaton’s make-up as a younger guy,” he replied. “But I imagine that the way in which he speaks to Scott that he made a lot of mistakes. I imagine Deaton being a complete screw-up when he was younger. I see him doing things wrong more often than he was doing them right. He seems to be very much a learn for yourself, do it by mistake, trial and error type of teacher.”
And speaking of headcanon about various characters’ past, we asked what sort of relationship both Deucalion and Dr. Deaton might’ve had with Talia, Derek’s mother. Gilliam answered first, saying, “Well I was told by Jeff that Talia and Deaton had a history. He wouldn’t go into what the history was. He just said they have a history. So I use that to imagine that like a woman, she took his heart.”
“I imagine that it was intense,” he continued. “I imagine that it was passionate. I imagine that it did not end well. Because that’s just more fun to think about.”
Emery weighed in as well, saying, “I don’t know if it went down that deep with my own imaginings. But, yeah, there was obviously some history. We did know each other. Yeah, I just sort of went with this, you know, great, great respect, and like, man, whenever I’m in her presence I’m a little bit in awe.”
In a related question, a fan asked if Gilliam thought Deaton was Scott’s emissary or if there was more of a tie to the Hales still. “I’m not clear on that, you know?” Gilliam answered. “I, the actor, want to lean towards still having some remaining allegiance to the Hales just because I like working with Tyler Hoechiln a lot.”
“But I would say structurally,” the actor continued, “you know, as far as the stories go, I would say that Deaton is probably at this point Scott’s emissary in the McCall house. But I would hope, though, that the thing with Talia and the Hales and whatever feeling Deaton may have toward [her would be fleshed out more].”
Call Me Cupcake
If anyone can carry a panel all by themselves, it’s going to be Orny Adams. Dragging his chair right to the edge of the stage, the stand-up comedian flopped down and got the ball rolling. While there were more laughs than we could count, he also offered up some fantastic insight into his character, Coach Finstock.
When asked about pranks, Adams first told us a secret about the handwriting on his chalkboard: “It’s never the same handwriting in the board. It’s never. And they never let me… Just one time it’s my handwriting. Just one time.”
Speaking of season 4 filming, Adams said, “So pranks… I will tell you last night I did a scene with Posey and he couldn’t stop laughing. And that’s the first time we had to cut over and over again. Because he was laughing. So that was kind of cool.
“But you know they don’t really let us prank too much. Because everybody is there to work, so it’s kind of hard.”
We can imagine how difficult it would be to keep a straight face while in Adams’ presence. He had the crowd cracking up when he said, “Apparently there’s a script. And I do everything I can do to put myself into the script. Which drives Jeff crazy. But I was hired for this show based on my stand-up comedy. And based on Jeff being a fan. And so I feel like I have some liberties.”
And fans certainly love the liberties he takes with the fan-favorite character, which was obvious when he said Coach should have his own DVD of bloopers and the entire room cheered.
Adams went on to talk more about Coach’s relationship with the kids at Beacon Hills. “I honestly feel you’re going to learn more from Coach than anybody,” Adams said. “I feel like Coach is the voice of reason on the show. I mean, I think if you talk about what he does in the classroom also out on the field, this is the guy you should be paying attention to. I mean it.”
And when Adams gets serious, you listen. While he certainly is the comedic relief of the show — both in and out of character — he also has some serious heart. “There’s a way to take a condom flying out of a pocket and make it a teachable moment,” he says, talking about the scene where Stiles accidentally lets fly the condom he had snagged from Heather’s house the night before. “And so I’m saying have the courage in life to go beyond the pages in the book and be what you are. That’s what Coach would tell you.”
Adams was the only person who did not have to audition for the show, as creator Jeff Davis asked if he’d be interested in playing Coach after seeing one of his stand-up routines. Luckily for everyone, Adams said yes to the role. But is there anything he’d like to change about his character?
“I would rather carry a heavier dramatic load on the show at this this point,” he said. “Funny is very easy for me. And I would rather at this point be sort of more involved.” But Adams can’t go too long without cracking a joke, and finishes his thought by saying, “I’d like to give Stiles a sex speech.”
Fanfic Panel
Though some of us were still wiping tears out of our eyes from Adams’ hilarious panel, Eaddy Mays’ talk about fanfiction brought a different kind of emotion with a very similar result.
While Victoria Argent is a difficult character to like, after hearing Mays talk about the woman’s love for her daughter, Allison, it’s not hard to view the Argent matriarch in a completely different light. Though the panel focused on the role of fandom in the lives of both the actors and the fans, Mays also gave us a performance so memorable it will be sticking with the attendees for years to come.
“Nobody expected Teen Wolf to do what it’s doing,” Mays said. “It’s brilliant. Jeff Davis is brilliant, right? Right. But YOU guys are brilliant. And what every single person in this room, and around the world, and in the Teen Wolf fandom — that’s right, I’m talking to you — what you’ve brought, what every person in this room has brought, has made this fandom, and therefore, morphed — kind of shape shifted — this show into something nobody ever dreamed it would be. And that’s because of you guys.”
Mays was magnetic as she moved around the stage, never sitting down for more than a moment or two. And after praising everyone in the room for what they do for the fandom, she talked about her own role in the fandom and how she relates to fanfiction. “I say I do fanfic for a living because what I believe, as a professional film and television actor, is that what works, in a film, in television, and in the industry today, is when actors are not just believably reading their lines.”
And Mays proved her merit as an actor when she easily slipped in and out of her character, talking to the audience as if she were Victoria, resurrected from the dead and speaking as if she knew everything that had transpired following her untimely demise.
“Has anybody wondered why I would stick a kitchen knife in my chest on my daughter’s bed?” After the crowd cheered, she continued by saying, “Right? So, here’s the deal. I got the script, and I was like, ‘What the fu–? There’s no way I’d do that on my daughter’s bed!’ I’m a mom. Three kids. No way. You could not, at knife point, force me to do it this way! But there it is. In black and white. Written by somebody far more brilliant than I am.”
“I look at every script and every page for every scene I get, and I look at it and I become a detective,” she said, talking about finding the reason behind the action’s of the character, especially if they weren’t explicitly stated in the script.
And when Mays finally explained why Victoria decided to kill herself in her daughter’s room, not a single person in the crowd had dry eyes. “So I chose that I would be in her room because I needed her life to never be the same,” Mays said. “I needed to affect her that severely. Because if I stayed around, she’d be killed. Or she’d have to kill me. And I would never do that to her. They had to leave that house. They had to leave that place. But I was just a little selfish and I was going to die where she felt most safe. I couldn’t die in her arms. So instead I’m going to die in her room.”
“That bastard, that insists I call him father,” she continued later, speaking of Gerard, “took that letter and he used pieces of it that only Allison would know were from me, and he used it to manipulate her. He turned my daughter into something she wasn’t meant to be. I didn’t want her to become me. And it killed her. And I’m going to find him, even if I have to come back from the grave!”
At the end of the panel, Eaddy Mays got the standing ovation she deserved, and it was a fantastic conclusion to the first day of BiteCon.
Come back tomorrow to find out what happened on day two! If you’d like to see more pictures and hear more stories from our time on set and at BiteCon, be sure to follow the NATWP Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram accounts, as well as keep an eye on our podcast page.
All photos are copyright of Tiffany Chien.