He is 90210: Getting to Know Tristan Wilds

By Lizzie Horne > Junior > Journalism > University of Maryland

“Acting was never my first love, but it’s an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world,” said 90210’s Tristan Wilds of his passion finally coming to fruition. While he always loved singing, rapping and writing, Wilds gave acting a try at an early age – and he’s lucky he did.

At age six, Wilds took after his older brother and took a shot at acting. His first roles were small, but he learned from each of them. Wilds was able to pick up on all of the things other people were doing, and taught himself how to become a better actor.

Before 90210 came around, Wilds was on the popular HBO television show The Wire. When he first started auditioning for The Wire, he was called in for the role of Randy. He got to the third audition and the producers told him he was a too big; so they called him back three weeks later to try out for the role of Michael. Wilds met with the director and producer and they immediately decided he would play Michael.

“Michael was an amazing character! I think I didn’t realize what I was doing when I was 16 and 17 portraying the role,” he said. “But as I look back at it now, he’s an amazing character, he’s very complex, he’s always looking out for the greater good and his little brother, even though he had to do something bad to do it.”

After several seasons of The Wire, 90210 is now his main focus. Wilds feels like he is in high school all over again on this show roughly based on the old television series. His character, Dixon, is the boy who is always trying to fit in and struggling with girls – something every boy in high school can relate to.

Wilds says his experience on 90210 has been just as good as, or better than, his time on The Wire. “It’s been really cool, I cannot complain. It’s on a different level, but I’ve grown so close to the cast because it felt like family again. I think I’ve learned an equivalent amount from both shows; they’re totally different, but I’ve loved them the same.”

Though he’s wrapped up in acting now, Wilds is always thinking about college and would like to go if he had the chance. He says he would want to study psychology so he could better understand the minds of humans because he’s always been really interested in the way the human mind works.

“But in reality,” he said, “I just want to do everything that I want to do. I want to be in the position, whether it’s going crazy with my music or producing or directing or writing or just whatever, where I can be me. And the main thing is having fun – that’s most important to me.”