‘Oh, don’t become difficult’: Dylan O’Brien’s concerns about ‘Maze Runner’ set were shut down before ‘life-changing’ accident
Dylan O’Brien had a serious accident while filming The Maze Runner: The Death Cure back in 2016. He was pulled off the top of a moving vehicle and hit by another one, which was no doubt an incredibly traumatic experience. Production on the movie was shut down for a while as it became clear how bad things were. His publicist described his injuries at the time as “very serious.”
The director of the film, Wes Ball, also gave a statement back in 2016 saying that he was “overwhelmed with feelings of anger and sadness and guilt.” He went on, “I’m sorry for the grief this accident has caused his friends and family as well as my wonderful cast and crew. It’s scary seeing your friend get hurt, but fortunately, Dylan is going to be just fine.”
However, O’Brien did not actually believe he was “fine”—he considers instead that the accident was “life-changing.” In a new interview with Men’s Health magazine he had some harsh words to those who allowed the accidents to happen. “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 said.
He went on,
I learned after the accident to not conflate taking care of yourself and looking after yourself. 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 isn’t the only actor who’s spoken out about dangerous treatment on movie sets. Uma Thurman made headlines in 2018 when she spoke out about Quentin Tarantino pressurizing her into a unsafe car on the set of Kill Bill. There was a crash and Thurman was injured, suffering permanent damage. Tarantino would later apologize for his actions.
And in the worst case scenario, an unsafe movie set can lead to a life cut short. That’s what happened on the set of Rust, where cinematographer Halyna Hutchens was killed after being accidentally shot by actor Alec Baldwin. The gun contained a live bullet and no-one had checked. Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was charged with involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to eighteen months in prison.
Movie set safety needs to be taken very, very seriously. It’s highly disappointing that O’Brien was let down so badly.
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