It’s a little too fitting that Not Okay — a movie about influencers, wannabe influencers, and Dylan O’Brien as a blue-check weedfluencer — had its own viral moment before the trailer even dropped. And by viral moment, I mean O’Brien’s uncanny transformation into the tatted, bleach-blond Colin (a.k.a. @weedboiiicolin). The dye job was O’Brien’s idea. And, as it turns out, completely in line with writer and director Quinn Shephard’s vision for the character. “I think, literally on the day, I texted Quinn,†O’Brien said at Not Okay’s July 28 premiere in Manhattan. “I was like, ‘Are you cool if I bleach my hair?’ She was like, ‘I was literally going to text you that yesterday.’ So everyone was sort of onboard.â€
Colin’s hair might look like Pete Davidson cosplay, and his streetwear-heavy wardrobe might call to mind more than one famous TikToker. But O’Brien says he drew inspiration from many, many years of observing obnoxious guys online. Colin “was an amalgamation, I think, of so many fuckboys that I’ve seen on the internet over the past ten years. It’s become such a character,†he said. “I kind of knew him instantly.â€
Although he’s back to brunette for now, Colin’s look is officially immortalized in O’Brien’s new Twitter icon. And in many, many thirsty tweets.