Back in 2016, Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien was rushed to the hospital from the British Columbia set after being run over by a stunt car. The actor suffered severe injuries from the accident, including facial fractures, a concussion and brain trauma. After months of recovery and a hiatus for The Death Cure's production schedule, O’Brien returned to set and filmed the conclusion to the series. And then, he went back and signed up for another stunt-heavy movie with Love and Monsters.
It’d certainly be understandable if Dylan O’Brien decided to take an extended break from action movies or big productions following his tragic incident. However, O’Brien got right back into it with the monster-apocalypse movie, which began production back in 2019. The 29-year-old actor reflected on what it's been like to get back into stunts:
It will always be different, you know? In a good way I think at this point. I’ve come out of it in a really good way. I’ve spoken about it a lot, this is something that has shaped how I always think of things. It’s really nice, because you have to protect yourself in ways in everything you do. On set that’s totally like a lesson that I think young actors all go through their own sort of ways of learning about ways to look after yourself. But these stunts, it’s always been something that I loved to do. It’s so much fun and it’s so much a part of what you’re doing and what the movie is. It brings it to life. I still enjoy it and I always will.
As Dylan O’Brien told ET Canada, he’s not letting one bad experience stop him from continuing something he loves to do as an actor. The incident has definitely made him more careful and aware of what can happen if he doesn’t pay attention, but he thinks it’s turned into a positive thing, considering how much it taught him about himself. It’s great to hear O’Brien is still excited about stunts after all this time.
Dylan O’Brien has opened up about how the severe accident has impacted him over the years. Once he suffered the injury, he recalled how important relationships were to him and how they had been on the backburner due to his career. O’Brien has likened the experience to rewiring and restructuring the way he sees his life and what he deems important.
He has previously shared the “degree of anxiety” he has felt in regard to completing stunts since recovering from the accident. Now, five years later, Dylan O’Brien still loves doing stunts and is not letting his fear take away from the opportunities placed in front of him.
Love and Monsters, his latest movie, had him interacting with some imaginative creatures while traveling on foot to his high school sweetheart, all during an apocalypse. The movie came out back in October, but it's now getting a second life to reach people since it recently dropped on Netflix in select markets.
Dylan O’Brien will also be starring alongside Mark Wahlberg in the science-fiction action film, Infinite, set to hit theaters on September 24, 2021. Check out what other movies are coming out this year with our 2021 release schedule here on CinemaBlend.
