Pop-Culturalist.com

Holland Roden is an award-winning actress and producer who has captivated audiences with her presence on screen. Her credits include Lost, Teen Wolf, Lore, Mayans M.C., and Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman. This June, she leads the cast of Tubi’s newest original, Obsessed to Death.

After Cassie (Holland Roden) is ghosted by Austin (Colton Royce) for beloved cycling instructor Summer (Kathryn Kohut), Cassie becomes fixated on Summer, who is everything she is not: glamorous and inspirational to all her devotees at fitness company Levitate 360. Cassie is drawn to Summer’s magnetic personality and worms her way into becoming Summer’s best friend by signing up for her fitness challenge. The closer Cassie gets to Summer, the more she takes on all of Summer’s characteristics, reinventing herself spin class by spin class and lie by lie. But as Summer’s fellow Levitate cyclist and friend Gage (Jesse Reynolds) starts to notice something is off with Cassie, her obsession with Summer turns violent. Emboldened by her newfound popularity, Cassie will do anything to have Summer and her lifestyle for herself.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to catch up with Holland to talk about Obsessed to Death, her thoughts on social media and influencer culture, and the upcoming Teen Wolf movie.

PC: Introduce us to Obsessed to Death and your character in the film.
Holland: Obsessed to Death is a take on social media. My character Cassie joins the online dating scene. It’s a take on how you make friends online in this day and age and also touches upon the fitness craze—some may say obsession. Cassie gets wrapped up in that world. If somebody isn’t completely mentally stable, those worlds can get to them.

PC: You’ve done it all throughout your career. What was it about this particular project and character that stood out to you?
Holland: I would say what drew me to this project was what I was just saying and what it’s based on. We’re tied to these social media platforms. You sit down for dinner and you’re staring at your phone—or when you wake up in the morning. It’s the last thing you look at before you go to bed. It’s an addiction. I have friends who have deleted the apps. We have an affinity for that scroll. But why is that? The fact that this is a movie about online platforms for dating, making friends, and business definitely caught my attention.

PC: What’s particularly interesting is when you’re portraying a character like this is that they never see themselves as villains. They see themselves as heroes in their own stories. How did you prepare to step into that mindset?
Holland: Yeah. I don’t think stalkers think they’re stalkers in their own minds. To them, there’s this rational reason for why they’re doing it. So I approached it from that angle and keeping in mind that Cassie was someone who had been wronged. Not to give full spoilers away, but Cassie was wronged at one point in her life. There are different ways people act out as a result of that. Hers was quite extreme, but that’s society for you.

I mean 99% of us would not do that. But the 1% that do, they get in trouble. They go to prison. They have to serve sentences. It obviously made sense in her mind that she was just trying to make friends. She would rationalize maybe not seeing the best in people and thinking that therefore she deserves it more than they do. In her eyes, she was the victim.

PC: When you’re playing a character who’s such a departure from who you are and from other roles that we’ve seen you do, is that more or less challenging?
Holland: I play crazy a bit more than I would like to admit. [laughs] I never really fell into the influencer lifestyle. Teen Wolf was a show that I was on for a long time. Instagram started the year after Teen Wolf. I remember MTV making us get profiles on Instagram and I wanted nothing to do with it. I thought it was so stupid. Obviously, the joke was on me. But as far as that goes, that’s a very big departure from Cassie and I. I’ve played frantic characters a few times or characters that have dissociative identity disorder. But as far as the social media aspect goes, that was the curveball for me. I had to look at influences to understand why they wanted to be part of it so much. I obviously post and then have to force myself to post again.

PC: Did you find your relationship with social media changed as a result of being a part of this project?
Holland: No. [laughs] Even before this project, the only things that I found myself gravitating towards online were nomadic living, Earthships, sailboards, and vans. That inspired me to build my own van during quarantine. From that, I definitely could relate to falling into wanting to see everyone’s builds and wanting to meet those people in real life—the travel-blogger-type people. You feel like you have something in common with them. That’s how Cassie felt with Summer. I have had that for the nomadic lifestyle as far as social media overlap between Cassie and myself.

PC: The film was directed by Stefan Brogren who’s an actor himself. What is it like collaborating with a director who’s been in your shoes?
Holland: I had not seen Degrassi when he was on it. We were at a table read and one of the actors was like, “I’m a big fan.” So I need to do more research. But he was great. He was such a pleasure to work with. These are the kind of movies that get shot very quickly, and he took it in stride. He kept it light on set, and we made our days. He was just such a pleasure. I really, really enjoyed working with him.

PC: We’ve seen that in recent years, the rise of streaming services like Tubi. How have these platforms changed the industry from an actor’s perspective?
Holland: It’s a different format of storytelling. It doesn’t take a studio anymore—and four to six months. The process can be much quicker. We shot this in February, and it’s coming out in June. I like that. If people want to have a fun, wild ride on a weeknight, it’s easy to consume. They’re fun, and they don’t take themselves too seriously. This one has a great message. I really enjoyed the material on this one. I was happy to be a part of it. I loved that. It’s an easy, fun movie.

PC: Perfect segue to this next question. There are so many timely messages. What do you hope audiences take away?
Holland: Delete the apps. [laughs] Social media is not the full picture. Even people with big businesses are hoping they make it from day to day. I think everyone has that quiet voice inside of them that says, “What are you doing? This is a waste of time. You’re never going to make it.” As we found out with Summer, she suffers from the same thing. She’s human. I would also say go with your hunches. People start disappearing in droves. Maybe separate yourself from the common denominators.

PC: You’ve also been filming the really highly anticipated Teen Wolf movie. Is there anything you can tease about what fans can expect? What has it been like for you getting to reunite with this cast and crew and to step back into Lydia’s shoes?
Holland: It was bizarre. It was amazing. It really makes you think a time machine does exist because it felt like a day hadn’t passed. Maybe we’re all a little bit wiser and obviously a little bit older, but it otherwise did not feel different. It felt like the show again.

We had pretty fancy toys back in the day. A lot of our budget went to cool cameras and cool cranes. I had a friend on set for a few days who’s on the camera side of things. He said, “This looks like a $50 million movie some days.” Then some days with the smaller scenes, it did feel like a show again. But yeah, there were a lot more fancy toys.

As far as plot, I don’t know what I can say. I’m in it! That and everything you’ve seen online. Working with Colton [Haynes] was great again. We lived together for quite some time after Teen Wolf. It was weird being on camera again together. We shoot in Atlanta, and it felt like such a homecoming.

PC: You’ve brought so many compelling stories and characters to life on the screen. What’s left on your bucket list? Is there a dream role that you would love to play in the future?
Holland: Oh gosh. I feel like my career has not fully begun yet. I feel like Teen Wolf so graciously opened the door for me. I think producing is something that is easier said than done, but that’s ultimately where my heart lies and I would love to be a part of that. I love non-fiction and historical non-fiction. So finding IP and being able to tell those stories is where my head’s at.

To keep up with Holland, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Obsessed to Death on Tubi today.