April 27, 2024

Why Dylan O’Brien Got Beat Up With A Pool Noodle On The ‘Maze Runner’ Set

While “The Maze Runner” may look like a Very Serious Movie, what with the dystopian vibes, deadly creatures and potentially life-ending and impossible to solve mystery maze, it wasn’t all Grievers and doom on-set.

We caught up with director Wes Ball and author James Dashner at San Diego Comic-Con recently and asked them about filming the Griever sequences. As the killer robot hybrid horrors don’t actually exist in real life (we hope), something had to stand in for the monsters.

Ball was determined not to make his cast react with terror to a tennis ball dangling from a stick (a common on-set, pre-effects trick), so he and some stunt men got their hands dirty.

That would explain this making-of picture Ball tweeted from back in July, showcasing the cast watching footage alongside a few blue unitard-clad men.

The stunt doubles weren’t the only ones who got in on the fun, either. Ball himself got in on the action, menacing star Dylan O’Brien with a pool noodle.

“I would actually put the helmet on and I would take these pool noodles and put the helmet on and swing this thing around like crazy and be like ‘hit me!’” he said. “One time I smacked Dylan in the face.”

Learn more about making the Grievers a reality in the interview below.

“The Maze Runner” dashes into theaters September 19.

About the author  ⁄ Kase Wickman

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