Dylan O’brien and Kaya Scodelario star in “The Maze Runner.”
Dylan O’Brien, star of “The Maze Runner,” is refreshingly off script as he discusses Hollywood’s latest shot at a teensin-dystopia franchise. But the newly 23-year-old best known as part of the ensemble of MTV’s “Teen Wolf” is not speaking from atop Actors’ Olympus.
“The acting was the toughest part for me, and the part I most get down on myself about,” he says. “I think I have, like, very far to go as an actor. In this movie, I felt like a rookie amongst veterans. I’m not a really confident actor, and I think that comes with time.”
To be fair, “Maze Runner’s” cast of dozens is composed of both “Greenies,” in the film and novel’s parlance, and old fogeys such as British imports Thomas Brodie-Sangster, 24 (“Love, Actually” and “Game of Thrones”); Kaya Scodelario, 22 (“Skins”); and Will Poulter, 21 (“Son of Rambow,” “We’re the Millers”). O’Brien’s humility and work ethic earned his veteran castmates’ respect.
Amazing professional
“Dylan’s one of the sweetest guys I — we — have ever met,” the energetic Poulter says at the Brits’ table in a private dining room at the Mr. C Hotel in Beverly Hills. “He’s like the core of our friend group, an amazing professional. Put in more dedication than I’ve ever seen on set. He’s like a total role model of how you should go about your job as an actor.”
That dedication was necessary for everyone during a roughly 10-week shoot on what Poulter calls “a rom-com budget” to adapt the first chapter in James Dashner’s series of novels (“The Scorch Trials” would be next).
“The visual effects are mind-blowing to me to see,” says the lanky O’Brien. “There are so many moments where we were literally in an empty, abandoned parking lot by the side of the highway in Louisiana and they made that out of it? Things like that blow my mind.”
In “The Maze Runner,” Thomas (O’Brien) wakes in a clearing to find about 30 other teen boys who have come to call it “the Glade.” Beyond the clearing are woods, and beyond the trees, mammoth, man-made walls. With no memories of their pasts and no idea who put them there or why, the Gladers have spent the past three years mapping the maze beyond the walls and avoiding Grievers — monsters/machines that kill Gladers caught in the maze at night.
First female
Thomas’ curiosity and the appearance of Teresa (Scodelario), the first female in the Glade, seems to put them all on a survival clock.
One might detect touches of “Divergent,” “Lord of the Flies,” “The Hunger Games” and “The Prisoner” in the setup, but the actors resist those comparisons.
“‘Maze Runner’ has a noteworthy message — it promotes camaraderie and being conscious, and people taking control of their own environment and having respect for their little world,” Poulter says. “Dyl has mentioned this, and James as well, that (Dashner) has faith in the
good of human nature. The fact that we all work together sends a message — if you applied the ethos we have in the movie, there’d be more peace.”
The elfin Brodie-Sangster says, “When you arrive, they say it’s a second birth. I don’t believe anyone is born evil or a murderer; it’s things that happen to you in your life and experiences that lead to your development. So if you’re born again and you come straight out as an 18-, 19-, 20-year-old, I think you would just work together. You’re a blank slate.”
A camp vibe
The relatively quick shoot took on a bit of a camp vibe — that’s out-in-the-woods camp, not John Waters camp — according to Scodelario.
“It reminded me of a school trip. When you’re reaching the age of puberty and you go away toWales or somewhere and you stay in those little cabins, and you say, ‘I fancy him,’ and you don’t really, but you do in that environment,” she says with a laugh. “You do these crazy exercises during the day and these team-building things, and it ends up being like the most beautiful week you can remember from school.
“It felt like a weird little holiday we all went on together.”
The actress was right at home among the dozens of boys.
“I’ll never forget the first time I met Kaya,” Poulter says. “We were throwing this ball around in the yard, and she basically kicks open this door. The ball bounces toward her, she catches it, throws it back, and is like, ‘Does anyone have a cigarette?’ or something.”
All three laugh at the memory. “It was just so sick. Then she told us about her flight ...”
“I said I got really gassy on the flight,” Scodelario boldly interjects, adding unapologetically, “I apologized.”
Poulter enthuses, “This chick is amazing! She’s straight in with the guys.”
“Then I wore a dress out for dinner that night, and you all looked at me differently. I was like,” she says indignantly, “‘Oh, thanks. So now I’m a woman.’ ” All three laugh again.
Poured lives into it
After heaping praise on his cast mates (and gamely returning their smack talk across the private dining room), O’Brien responds to prodding about his on-set insecurities with candor:
“I went into this experience saying, ‘I’m not going to let that screw this up for me.’ This movie was very special to me, and I wasn’t going to let something so petty and self-indulgent completely derail me from the film we all went down there and poured our lives into,” he says. “I really poured my life into this movie for 43 days straight, 15, 16 hours a day. It nearly killed me in so many emotional, physical, mental ways.
“‘Just enjoy this. You created something.’ ”