Exclusive Interview with Natural Selection’s Mason Dye

Natural Selection is a film that puts a bit of a darker spin on your typical high school drama. Helping bring this film to life is MTV and film actor Mason Dye. You’ve seen him on Teen Wolf and Finding Carter, and with quite a few films under his belt, there’s no mistake that Mason is a pretty big star on the rise. I chatted with Dye about Natural Selection and some of his other roles, check out what he had to say below!

I loved Natural Selection! What made you want to portray the character of Tyler Evans?

The script was great. It was just something different, that I hadn’t really read before. Especially the topic that it takes on. As soon as I read it, I really fell in love with it. I tend to be drawn towards darker films (laughs). I don’t know why, but something about this one especially made me really want to do it. I saw the short film that Chad Scheifele (the director) had done before this about Natural Selection, and I really liked that too. That’s part of the reason why I wanted to do this movie.

Your filmography is a lot darker than your TV roles. Finding Carter and Teen Wolf are sort of dark but not as dark as the movies you’ve done, do you think you prefer doing one more than the other?

Oh, that’s a tough question! I can’t really choose one. I love them both so much. It’s like there are the dark roles that you have so much fun with but then it’s fun to go back to the lighter-hearted stuff. I feel like it’s about finding a good balance because I have a blast on both, they both have their perks. It’s always cool to do the creepy stuff and the light-hearted stuff (laughs).

What was it like working with Chad on his first big feature?

It was a blast! I mean Chad is one of my good friends now out here in LA. It was so much fun, he is such a young director and he knew exactly what he wanted. It’s so fun and cool to watch him work because he’s so driven and determined. He’ll get what he wants however he can get it. He’d just like come on set and say, “ok… I need you guys to be like ‘boom, boom, boom, boom’”. Then he’d just walk off, and we’d all get it (laughs). Yeah, Chad was so much fun, he’s such a great director.

Where did you guys film the movie?

We filmed in Pennsylvania, honestly, I don’t remember the town, what it was called, but it was right by Amish Country. Me and Katherine McNamara went to go play Mini Putt Putt Golf one time and as we were driving we passed by so many cool things. The putt putt place had carriages up front, it was such a cool change. It was pretty wild, like the Walmart had a place to hook up your horses (laughs).

You had a pretty awesome cast, what was it like working with Kat and everyone else?

It was such a blast working with Kat, she’s one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met. She’s so nice and so talented. I had known Kat before we did this film, we had a lot of mutual friends and had hung out a few times so it was nice working with her. It’s always nice working with your friends too. I just met Ryan Munzert when we got out to Pennsylvania and he’s such a great kid. It was so cool to watch him transform into Indrid Wardin’s craziness because he’s not at all like that but he’s just so talented. And he’s such a nice kid, I shouldn’t say kid, he’s actually older than me (laughs). Having Anthony Michael Hall, that was just… awesome. It was so cool and he’s so nice and humble. It was so much fun getting to work with him and everyone else.

Speaking of working with friends, I know you have Vanished: Left Behind – Next Generation coming out this September that you worked on with Dylan Sprayberry?

(laughs) Yeah, that’s so funny that you brought that up! I’m literally sitting on Dylan’s couch right now. We filmed Vanished in Savannah, Georgia and that was one of the best experiences, just because I got to do it with him. You know we don’t really talk to each other about acting jobs that much and I remember him saying, “yo dude! I think I’m doing this movie” and I was like “I think I’m doing a movie too! What is it called?” Then we figured out it was the same movie (laughs). So it was pretty cool and so much fun.

If you could have the audience take away one thing from Natural Selection, what do you think it should be?

You can overcome anything, no matter how bad or dark things may seem. There’s always a brighter side. I just came up with that on the spot (laughs)!

 

 

Natural Selection is in theaters and available on VOD and iTunes on August 26, 2016