Dylan O’Brien Reveals His Safety Concerns Were 'Not Respected' On Maze Runner’s Set

Dylan O’Brien recently opened up about the serious injuries he sustained while he was filming for The Maze Runner: The Death Cure. During the shoot of the third part, O’Brien was pulled off a moving vehicle while wearing a harness and was subsequently struck by another vehicle, which resulted in significant injuries. The 33-year-old shared that the life-threatening incident changed his approach to safety on set.

In an interview with Men’s Health, O’Brien shared how the incident impacted him and said, “It was a life-changing incident. I’ve approached everything differently, you could say, particularly with regards to standing my ground on set.” He noted that young actors are often discouraged from speaking up, fearing they’ll be labelled as “difficult”.

“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,” added the actor.

The Teen Wolf actor then mentioned that he has learned to stand his ground. “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,” O’Brien said, before continuing, “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.”

At 33, O’Brien is much wiser. Highlighting that one must take care of oneself in these places, the actor added, “It’s taught me that, at the end of the day, in these spaces, you have your own back, and that’s the most you can rely on. I just turned 33. I’ve been doing this for 15 years. 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. 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.”

O’Brien’s first film following this near-death incident was the action thriller American Assassin, co-starring Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, Shiva Negar and Taylor Kitsch. He was most recently seen in the biographical drama Saturday Night.