EXCLUSIVE: Tanner Ray Rook & Reed Shannon Talk Joining the Cast of Season 2 of The Wilds
The brand new season of The Wilds is now out on Prime Video and we got the chance to sit down with two of the new stars who joined the cast for the new season, Tanner Ray Rook (Bo) and Reed Shannon (Scotty).
In our chat with the boys, we talked the relationship between Bo and Scotty, survival, the scripts, the long days on set, and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.
How did you two create the relationship between Bo (Rook) and Scotty (Shannon)?
Shannon: “It’s kind of a funny story because we both are in Los Angeles. We were flying out to go film for the first time and we were at LAX, and we ended up in the same line because there was some COVID information mix up. They were about to send us out of the airport, and we just looked at each other and, like, ‘Are you in The Wilds? Who you playing? Oh, we’re best friends. Let’s do it. Let’s make it happen.’”
Rook: “Bouncing off all of that. Having that be your first experience with the guy that you’re supposed to be best friends with, and you start off on such a funny note and it’s already a great story. There was just this feeling of like, okay, yeah, I think we’re going to be fine. And of course, like we hung out outside of the set and that was also just great.”
Can you talk a bit about their friendship and how important you think it is to their survival on the island?
Rook: “For Bo I think it’s important for the friendship to last because they met each other when they were very young, and Bo comes from an abusive household and Scotty has pretty much been his saving grace. The only one who’s really kept him sane. When you’re on the island and its high stakes and it’s just trauma and pain, you need somebody by your side. Bo is probably happiest when he is with Scotty.”
Shannon: “Off of that, a lot of Scotty’s energy and Bo is being a protector and being a provider and stuff. The ways that he leans on Bo, Bo also leans on him. Especially once they get to the island, Scotty has this idea of okay, well, whatever happens, I’m going to make sure that we’re good. That’s the joy in having somebody that’s a ride or die because Scotty and Bo are unbreakable. Like there’s nothing that could come in between them looking out for each other.”
If Scotty and Bo are ride and die, who would you say was your real-life ride or die?
Shannon: “My girlfriend is, she’s a ride or die. She always has my back. She’s not exactly my Bo because she’s not as innocent or sweet as Bo towards me at least. But she definitely looks out for me. That’s nice.”
Rook: “I would say I don’t really have one person. I have like a small group of friends that I made in college, and I moved in with them right after. That was around the time where the pandemic started. We bonded a lot because we all had to get second jobs and just try to keep hustling. I would say my small little group of friends from college.”
Survival is the key to this series and these characters. Do you think the pandemic helped prepare you for your role on the show?
Shannon: “I would say due to COVID, I feel like this is a universal feeling. Something like COVID-19 happening really puts things into perspective. It really gives you a chance to know yourself. You don’t have a choice but to know yourself and understand why you feel certain ways. That was definitely like blind lessons. Who knew we would end up on a show where we would have to have that same feeling of, man, I’m so confused? I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but I know I have to survive. And it was beautiful to be able to dive deeper into that for the show and put ourselves in different circumstances. It was like we were stranded because I didn’t know Rook before we started filming. I didn’t know anybody in the cast, but we were put in this situation, and we had to survive, and we made a little skit because of it. But it was very, very close in relation.”
Rook: “I would say the isolation was something that really prepared me for The Wilds, because whenever there’s a scene going on, we’re all usually there because there’s nobody else on the island. We have to be involved. Even if you don’t have any scenes where you’re speaking, there’s a lot of emotions going around and I think having the isolation from the beginning of the pandemic was, it was just a good, like it was a good training tool unintentionally, but it was good training.”
Did you also get the scripts in advance of filming, or did you get them right before you started?
Rook: “We got every episode, like right before, we all started filming. When we got the script for me and Shannon’s episode, we read it and immediately FaceTime each other afterwards. And every time we got a script, everybody would hunker away for an hour and then just like scroll through the whole thing.”
Shannon: “Radio silence immediately. They didn’t tell us much, to be honest. Like you said, we would get it like a week out or something and then obsess. But it’s like, it was so crazy. It felt even more of a deep session because it was like, this is what we’re out here for and we’ve only shot two episodes and who knows what’s going to happen in the next episode. The writers know, but we’re sitting here like, so what do you thinks going to happen? We always have theories though. Me and Rook talk about theories every time we get together.”
What do you do to kind of wind down after an intense day of filming?
Rook: “Sleep. Most of the time we were working long hours and I would say it was pretty easy to sort of brush it off a bit because we have a lot to do during the day. There’s a lot of us. I would say at least for my experience, it was a pretty shared sense of, okay and now we’re done. Let’s go home.”
Shannon: “Definitely. Occasionally at times during filming, there were times when I was just like, ‘I’m just going to have to live with Scotty for the next few days.’ But overall, like Tanner said, once we’re done with the day, we can relax for a little second at least.”
What about while on set, what do you both do during the down times to relax?
Rook: “Well, surprisingly we didn’t really get tired of each other. We would always just hang out because there’s nobody else really around going through what you’re going through, so you really stick together. That was something that we did a lot. A lot of games. Played a lot of games. Oh, probably my favorite part is when we weren’t on set, Reed’s always working on music. He’s always singing to him himself. So, it’s like having a little jukebox with you all the time because he’s just singing and dancing all the time.”
Shannon: “It’s true. I don’t know how else to keep myself from running around everywhere except for singing or something. It is cool because there’s a lot of people in the cast that are musical, like Aiden [Laprete] who plays Henry. We make music all the time together. So, we did that. Lots of jokes. There was one night we were in a night shoot, and it was like, 2:00 AM or something like that. You just look around and we were all just like sleeping, just waiting, waiting for the call. Eating the snacks. In Australia, they have afternoon tea before lunch and the snacks out there were great. Just get into whatever. Just try and stay out the way. That was my plan.”
If the two of you were stranded on a desert island for real, each separate though. Do you think you’d be able to survive?
Rook: “I think I would be able to survive. I grew up hunting in the Northwest woods. I think I’d be able to survive for a bit.”
Shannon: “I don’t know if I would last as long even as long as the guys lasted on the island. I would probably mentally tap out at some point. I’d just be like, man, this is rock bottom for real. I would try my hardest though.”
If you could take one character with you to live on the island, who would you take?
Rook: “I would honestly bring Shannon because we already have a great camaraderie together, but I’m not super-fast and he is. While I’m out getting water, I could ask him, go like, I don’t know, catch some rabbits just run through the woods.”
Shannon: “I would definitely take Rook.”
What would you say was the most challenging part for both of you bringing the season to life?
Shannon: “I feel like for me it was just sort of being secure in the choices that I was making as an actor and also in relation to everybody and the cast because we were still getting to know each other, and this is a pretty big project and we’re hoping that it’ll last for a while. We want to be cordial and cool. Definitely navigating a new life in Australia was very interesting. Making the right choices overall was it was a gamble.”
Rook: “I’m going to say the same thing. Imposter syndrome is a real thing and that was something that I struggled with just because I’m so new. I hopped on this and everybody around in the cast has had experience and already knows what they’re doing or at least that’s what I thought. But talking to Reed it’s it is the same thing. You want to show up and do your best work and do what everybody wants to see. So, you have to trust your instincts. That was something that I learned about myself was that I got to learn to trust my instincts.”
Shannon: “That’s one of the beautiful things about this cast. We all somehow just understand where we’re at in our journeys and in our capabilities and stuff like that. It was really relieving to be in this situation with like 15 new people, actors, you know the actor type, and not feel judged or like you can’t make a mistake, you know what I mean? Like there was so much room to grow as people, as actors, as in telling this story specifically.””
Rook: “We really had each other’s backs on all of it and I just can’t say enough. I’m just so thankful for these guys.”
As of right now, there has been no confirmation on a Season 3. If we do get a third season, which girl character would you like to see your character interact with more?
Rook: “I really want to see Bo interact with Shelby [Mia Healey]. I can’t put a finger on it, but there’s something about like Bo’s very soft. He’s a huggable guy. He’s a teddy bear. I would love to see the optimism just ping back and forth between Bo and Shelby.”
Shannon: “I want to see something between Scotty and Leah [Sarah Pidgeon] because Leah’s kooky and Scotty is very, very practical. I just honestly, not for any plot point. I think it would just be funny to see them in the same room and she’s like tweaking and he’s like this bitch is crazy.”
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo credit: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Amazon Studios