Dylan O’Brien’s experience on “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” taught him just how fragile life can be.
The actor, who says he suffered from a concussion and other physical injuries while filming the 2018 feature, told Men’s Health that his on-set accident was “life-changing” in realizing how studios can “manipulate” young stars. O’Brien was injured during a 2016 sequence involving stunts. The incident halted production for months. The film was released by 20th Century Fox on January 26, 2018.
“It was a life-changing incident. I’ve approached everything differently, you could say, particularly with regards to standing my ground on set,” O’Brien said. “It’s very commonplace in the culture for young actors to be controlled, and the way they strive to do that is by always being like, ‘Oh, don’t become difficult. Don’t be a pain in the ass.’ Or, ‘Are you complaining, are you being difficult?’ Things like that.
He added, “Don’t let them manipulate you into thinking that is being difficult, because I can look at that day and know I was a 24-year-old kid who was raising concerns about how we were approaching things, and they were not listened to, they were not respected. And then what happened, happened. And by all accounts, it was all pretty gotten away with, I would say, as well.”
O’Brien continued that he “learned after the accident to not conflate taking care of yourself and looking after yourself. At the end of the day, in these spaces, you have your own back, and that’s the most you can rely on.”
IndieWire reached out to 20th Century Fox parent company Disney for comment.
Eight years after the ordeal, the “Saturday Night” actor has become more comfortable on sets.
“I know the person I am, and the character I bring to set, and the way I treat people and the way that I treat a workspace, and I know I’m not difficult,” O’Brien said. “I know I’m not an asshole. I know I was trying to protect myself that day, and so I’ve just never forgotten that. That’s always rung true as being the thing to hold with me.”
A press statement from 20th Century Fox at the time pointed to O’Brien’s prolonged recovery.
“The resumption of principal photography on ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ has been further delayed to allow Dylan O’Brien more time to fully recover from his injuries,” the statement read. “We wish Dylan a speedy recovery and look forward to restarting production as soon as possible.”
