The cast of MTV's "Faking It" had only one thing to say to their co-star Keith Powers when he walked into the table read for the season 2A finale last year
"Narc!"
The finale script revealed Powers' secret that his character Theo was really an undercover police officer and had been lying to his "classmates" including Lauren (Bailey De Young). Some of the cast had their suspicions about Theo, but Powers kept his word to creator Carter Covington and would not confirm anything until they all read the episode.
"I kept it a secret until the end. I knew this was going to be crazy when people found out. I already knew they were going to be so mad," Powers told Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview. "Some of them had actually guessed it, but I would say that it wasn't right just so they wouldn't know."
The secret revelation created an awkward situation for Theo and Lauren, who had fallen in love with him. "It's really a conflict of interest," Powers said about having an officer in his early 20s date a high school sophomore. It's also illegal in most states but Theo won't let that little detail stop him from pursuing Lauren further.
"You're going to see a different Theo. It's not going to be so much of the smooth, laid-back Theo. It's more of the in-love Theo, trying to make it work. It's going to be interesting," Powers said.
Dr. Dre and his fellow N.W.A. member Ice Cube served as executive producers on the film, and Powers cited their presence on set as well as the visits from MC Ren, DJ Yella and other influential hip-hop artists for the success of the project.
"It had all the right vibes around it. Everyone was 100 percent behind it," he said. "You see some young kids who enjoyed doing music and spoke from their heart. Regardless if you agree with them or not, you have to respect it because a lot of them came from nothing, and to be such an icon of that group at that time, especially at the time hip-hop was just coming up... they really changed the game. They changed music."
Powers looks to reach a more dramatic audience in the premiere episode of AMC's "Fear the Walking Dead." He'll only appear in the first episode, which could spell bad news for his character, but Powers really saw the role as a way to show "a whole different level" of his acting chops.
"I'm really confident about it. I can't wait for people to see it," he said. "I think it's going to show a whole different side of my acting skills because I do a lot of comedy, which is so funny to me because I never thought I could do comedy when I first started acting."
"Fear the Walking Dead" will premiere on Sunday, Aug. 23 at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC. "Faking It" premieres a week later on Monday, Aug. 31 at 9:30 p.m. EDT on MTV. "Straight Outta Compton" is currently playing in theaters.
