Dylan O'Brien Says He Has 'Anxiety' Working on Action Scenes Following His Maze Runner Injury
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Jerritt Clark/Getty Images Dylan O'Brien
Dylan O'Brien is opening up about the aftermath of his injuries while working on the set of Maze Runner: The Death Cure.
The 29-year-old actor spoke to Variety in an interview published on Thursday while promoting his new film Love and Monsters in which he recalled the traumatic injuries he sustained on the 2018 film.
“Whenever I’m putting on a rig, I’m vetting every piece of that rig and much more,” O’Brien said of how he has become more vigilant about safety on movie sets.
Despite his precautions, O’Brien admitted, “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.”
“There is a degree of anxiety in me that I don’t think there’s ever not going to be,” he said.
The incident also taught him something valuable about his relationships.
“I had friends that were so dear to me that I had felt that I had neglected for years,” he said. “All of a sudden, it was very important to me to nurture those relationships and not lose them.”
Twentieth Century Fox Dylan O'Brien
He added, “I think that it absolutely completely rewires and restructures the way you see your life and what you deem important.”
In March 2016, O’Brien suffered a "concussion, facial fracture and lacerations" after being hurled from a moving vehicle and hit by another car, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Production was halted in late April 2016 and O’Brien stayed out of the spotlight for months.
In September 2017, O’Brien told PEOPLE he “was in a really fragile, vulnerable state” after the incident.
“I didn’t want anyone in my business and you get angry about it and you’re already angry,” he said. “I’ve gotten to a place where I’m OK with it, but it was definitely a rough year.”
Of the accident, O’Brien said he “definitely remember what happened.”
“I lose detail when I went out, so on impact basically. The memory of it — the weird thing I learned is that your body is more aware of what happened to you even if you are not, in away,” he continued. “Like you have these uncontrollable reactions to a situation like that that you dont even see coming, or expect. You don’t fully become cognizant for weeks after, that was basically it.”
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