Dylan O’Brien Opens up About Maze Runner Set Accident

Four years after being injured in an on-set accident while filming Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Dylan O’Brien is speaking out about the incident and how it changed his life, saying that he felt broken for a long time after and that he had a long road back after the incident which saw production on the film shut down for several months and reportedly required reconstructive surgery.

Speaking with Deadline in support of his film The Education of Frederick Fitzell, O’Brien revealed that part of what appealed to him about the script for The Education of Frederick Fitzell was that the character was dealing with loss and the next stage of his life, something that he identified with in part because of the accident.

“That was definitely one of the pieces. It was a concoction of sh*t,” O’Brien said. “I had a rough and long road back from that, probably more than people realize. It was a very private and personal thing for me. I was going through that sh*t for a long time.”

In 2016, production on The Maze Runner: The Death Cure was halted when O’Brien suffered a serious injury during filming. While specifics of the incident have remained private, it was reported at the time that the actor had fallen from a part of the set, resulting in either a fractured cheekbone or orbital socket. The injury required reconstructive surgery which kept production on the film delayed for several months before resuming in March 2017. The film was released in January 2018.

“A lot of things in my life were changing and were difficult at that time,” O’Brien continued. “A lot of things in my career were changing too. I was fighting it for a while and freaking out that I felt so f*cking broken. I had to accept that and sink into it. It’s hilarious to think back to the place I was in when I read this script and then the onslaught of information I screamed at Chris after I read it. But I think he took it as interesting, that I got it to the core. I was so in that moment.”

O’Brien, who is also starring in Love and Monsters, told Variety that the accident has also impacted his approach to safety on set.

“Even to this day, if I’m on set and I’m doing a stunt, if I’m in a rig, if there’s some action going on, I am slightly irritable,” he said. “There is a degree of anxiety in me that I don’t think there’s ever not going to be.”

Love and Monsters is available on-demand now.