‘The Masked Singer’: Hawk Talks Getting Competitive, Using Those Wings & More

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 10 Episode 6 “Harry Potter Night.”]

Hawk managed to get past the Smackdown in his first appearance of The Masked Singer Season 10, but not the second time.

They lost out to Tiki in his second Smackdown, to “Monster” by Lady Gaga, but none of the panelists were able to figure out who was in the costume (despite a few clues hinting at Teen Wolf). And so it was a surprise to them when he unmasked and revealed himself to be actor and musician Tyler Posey.

Below, Posey opens up about his time on the show.

You were very entertaining.

Tyler Posey: I felt the same way. I was like, “What? You’re going to vote me off?” Honestly, I was a little bummed out, just for a little bit, because I’m very competitive and I gave it my all and I wanted to go further.

Is your competitive nature part of what made you say yes to doing The Masked Singer?

It is. That’s definitely a big reason. I like to push myself to do interesting things. I have a checklist that I don’t really write until the opportunity comes up, and I like to fill it with really bizarre, random experiences that are once-in-a-lifetime, and this completely fit right in there. This is something that’s not normal — everything about it: the performing, the not knowing who the contestants are, the suit you get to where, performing in the suit… It’s just a really random thing that I love, and this was just perfect.

Talk about that costume — it didn’t look like you had trouble moving in it on the stage.

Yeah, it was, for the most part, pretty free to move in there. Without the wings, I could be doing back-flips and front-flips and bouncing off the walls, but with the wings I was a little bit restricted. I just had to remember I was 10-feet wide, so I couldn’t be too close to a wall and spin around. I think I even hit Nick Cannon one time with my wings by accident because I turned to him real quick. But I really wanted to give it my all, and the costume designers did a really great job with giving me a lot of free will in the costume itself. I was able to move around quite a bit. The wings were a little bit difficult at times, but I just wanted to go all out and make it seem like I had been the hawk my entire life. My character’s been the hawk his whole life, so I wanted to kind of play that role.

What went into your song choices [“Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)” by Elton John and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police]? Did the costume affect that at all?

I originally came up with a list of songs, and the producers did a really good job at picking some stuff and running things by me they thought I would like, and I ended up loving all the songs they ran by me. It was a collaboration. I loved them all. I thought the songs were really cool. And the wings didn’t hold me back. I was able to incorporate the wings into some of the songs — I thought that was really fun — especially [the second] Smackdown, the Lady Gaga song. I flew around the stage, and I even changed one of the words to fly or flew, and so I was able to do really creative things like that with the wings. It was perfect.

Yeah, you were in Smackdowns in both your episodes. How were those face-offs?

I was. I was a little surprised at first with both of them because I was like, “Wow, I really gave it my all.” We’re not allowed to watch the others perform. We’re just in our little back green rooms while they’re performing and I was like, “What did they do on stage? Were they doing flips and serving pizza to the audience?” I was just very surprised that I was in the bottom two both times. And then it made me nervous. I was like, “Oh god, I have to do this Smackdown now.” I felt very rehearsed and ready for the Smackdown. Everyone just kept saying, “You’re probably not going to go in the Smackdown, but just in case,” and then it happened and I was like, “Oh, Jesus, here we go.” It definitely added the nerves to the whole element of everything, but it was fun. Those nerves are also exciting.

Did you have any songs in mind if you’d continued on?

I wanted to do a Blink 182 song. There’s a song called “Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger that I really wanted to perform. Also I wanted to do some Alanis Morissette, I thought that would’ve been really, really cool. I don’t know if anyone’s ever done Alanis Morissette on the show. [I wanted to] pay homage to my favorite artists.

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Talk about the panelists’ guesses. No one figured you out, despite some obvious clues pointing to your work.

I thought that was interesting. I do think the producers did a really good job of being kind of difficult in the hints, not completely on the nose, but then the further we got on with the clues, they did get a little bit more obvious. But I don’t know. I think it was still confusing. I don’t think a lot of people know that I’m a musician as well as an actor, so I think that element threw them off. They kept coming back to that. They kept thinking I was this punk rock musician in Fall Out Boy or Green Day, which was very flattering. I felt good with our clues.

Did you come into this expecting anyone from the panel to figure you out?

I didn’t. Ken Jeong and I did something years ago for Stand Up to Cancer because I lost my mother and he has experience with that, too. I kind of wanted them to throw that in there. They definitely talked about my mom, which was awesome, but I wanted them to say Ken Jeong and I have actually met before. But I don’t know if he would’ve remembered because it was so long ago. So if anybody would’ve guessed it, I felt like it would’ve been him, but nobody did.

Have you heard from anyone — friends, family, costars — over the past week knowing it was you?

No, I haven’t heard anything from anybody. I think the closest thing to that was after I was revealed, I heard the audience say, “We knew it was you! We could tell by your singing voice.” I thought that was really cool. I was like, “Really? You knew it was me?” That was endearing. But no, nobody has caught it yet that that’s me in the Hawk.

What are you going to take away from the entire experience?

That I’m very competitive and I like to give it my all and win. I knew that, but I didn’t know it to that extent. Because I was a little sad after — I gave it my all and I was like, “Oh, man, I really feel like I should’ve gone further.” But it’s just a fun little thing, nothing to be worried or stressed about. Also, everybody’s really talented there — the people who put the songs together really quickly, the costume designers, all the producers, the vocal coaches, the on-set directors. They have it down to a T, and I was really impressed with how great everybody was. And I’m down to do it again. I thought it was a lot of fun performing in that costume.

Would you want to do another type of competition show then?

I would. I enjoy that kind of thing. I want to do like a Wipeout kind of thing. That would be so fun.

What surprised you the most about being on The Masked Singer?

You kind of know what you’re getting yourself into. I think what surprised me the most is how long I had to sit in the costume in between performances because I would want to take the whole thing off and cool down or just relax a little bit, but I couldn’t really sit down or lounge. Because those little performances, it was not even a full song, but I was completely wiped after. But I couldn’t, just in case they needed me to go back really quickly. It took a long time to put the costume on, 20 minutes, maybe more. It’s a lot of work. I really tip my hat off to everybody who’s done this. It’s definitely not easy. It’s a big commitment, and you’re in there. And if you get claustrophobic, you’re kind of screwed because you’re sealed into this costume for however [long].

The Masked Singer, Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox